Bethuel Kitchen

Who was Bethuel Kitchen?

Bethuel Middleton Kitchen was a nineteenth-century politician from Virginia and West Virginia.

Born in Ganotown, Virginia, Kitchen attended the common schools as a child and later engaged in agricultural pursuits and stock raising. He was a member of the Virginia House of Delegates in 1861 and 1862 and a member of the West Virginia State Senate in 1864 and 1865. He presented his credentials as a member-elect to the United States House of Representatives in 1863, but was not permitted because of votes cast from Berkeley County, Virginia which had succeeded to the recently formed state of West Virginia. Lewis McKenzie contested the election. Kitchen was later elected a Republican to the House in 1866 serving from 1867 to 1869. Afterwards, he resumed engagements in agricultural pursuits and stock raising and became president of the Agricultural and Mechanical Association of Berkeley, Jefferson and Morgan Counties, serving from 1869 to 1875. Kitchen was master of the West Virginia State Grange from 1873 to 1879, was a member of the West Virginia State Senate again in 1878 and 1879 and was president of the Berkeley County, West Virginia court from 1880 to 1895.