The eldest son born to Judge
William McComas and his wife Mildred in 1822, he received an education appropriate to his class. His brothers included William Wirt McComas (who fought with the
Giles Artillery of the Confederate States Army), Judge Hamilton Calhoun McComas (who enlisted as a Lt. Col. for the Union in Illinois but resigned on February 6, 1863, and later served two terms as a judge in
Monticello, Illinois as well as married U.S. Senator Ware's sister but died in an Apache raid near
Silver City, New Mexico), Rufus French McComas and Benjamin Jefferson McComas (both remaining in
Cabell County after it became part of
West Virginia). His sister Irene married George McKendree. On September 8, 1842, he married Arianna Holderby, and they had a daughter Alice (born 1843) and sons Henry F. McComas (born 1845), Walter McComas (born 1850) and Gordon McComas (born 1860). A man named Elisha McComas served as Captain in the
U.S. Army during the
Mexican–American War (possibly the same man). Cabell County had several related men sharing the same name, one of whom served as a private with the 3rd Regiment of West Virginia Cavalry during the Civil War. ==Career==