USA > West Virginia > Preston County > A History of Preston County, West Virginia, V. 2 > Part 8
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Hardin Duval Carroll was born where he lives now, near Mason- town, February 16, 1863. He received a good education, having taken the degree of B. S. of Agriculture from the University of Morgan- town, and a course in Veterinary Science. When seventeen years old he began teaching and followed that profession almost continuously twenty-three years. His degree, Bachelor of Science, was obtained in 1905. He superintended the schools at Masontown three years, and as an agriculturalist held farmers' institutes and lectured. Beside superintending the farm and veterinary practice, he is connected with the Civil Service in the Post Office Department and finds time to write for several agricultural papers and report to the U. S. Agricultural Department.
On November 7, 1888, he married Elma, daughter of Joseph and Eleanor Herring and sister to George A. Herring of Kingwood. Their children : (a) Allen K., born April 10, 1896, is now taking a course in agriculture at Morgantown University ; (b) Paul, born March 17, 1893; (c) Ruth, born April 16, 1895; (d) Myra, born May 7, 1900; (e) Helen, born April 29, 1904.
The family are members of the Methodist Church.
ZAR BEERBOWER.
The subject of this sketch is a successful farmer living near Glade Farms. He is a descendant of Philip Beerbower, who came with his parents to this country from Germany, landing in the city of New York. (See sketch of the Beerbower family.) Philip Beerbower went to York county, Pennsylvania, and in 1808, moved with his family to the Glade Farms settlement, where he raised a family of five children. Of these children, Philip, Jr., remained at home to care for his parents, the others all going to Ohio, where many of their descendants still live. After the death of his father, Philip moved to Pennsylvania, but only staid there a short time. He returned to Preston county and took up his final abode where Zar Beerbower now lives.
Only one of the brothers who went to Ohio had found a wife in Preston county. This was Jacob, who took away Elizabeth, daughter of Jesse Spurgeon, Sr. His son, Dr. Jesse Beerbower, born in Ohio, September 18, 1829, was a graduate of Jefferson College and also of the Keokuk Medical College. There being an opening at Bruceton for a
ZAR BEERBOWER
TILW YORK TUDD C LIBRARY
ASTON. LEMON TILDEN ! . . L
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physician, he located there in 1856. During the Civil War he was assistant surgeon of the Third Maryland Infantry, and died at Mobile, Alabama, whither he had gone for his health in 1865. Philip, Jr., was born in 1799, and died in 1873. His wife, Lydia Kelly, was one year younger than himself, and survived him ten years. Their children were fourteen. George S., the oldest of the family, was twice married, first to Catherine, daughter of Archibald DeBerry. They had three children : Allen, William and Della. He was next married to Sarah Laub. They had seven children, three died in infancy, those living are : Martha, Emma, Lloyd and Charles. Harry married Ann Mitchell. They had four children. John died in infancy, the three living are Silas, William and Zadie. Henry C. married Jane Mitchell. Their children are: Ella, Gertrude, Clara and Orval. Hannah became the wife of Henry Beatty. They had one daughter, Ella. Phoebe mar- ried Henry Sliger. Their only son is now dead. Martha married Thomas Beatty. Elizabeth married Adam Sliger, and had three children : Laura, Philip and Thomas. Nancy married James DeBerry. They had two children, Allen and Camden. Zar married, of whom mention will again be made. James, the remaining brother, married Mary Fearer. Their children were: Frank, dead; Robert, Fred, Ross, dead; Jacob B., died in 1907. He married Elizabeth Barnard and they are the parents of William, who lives at Rockville, Pennsylvania, and Forest, who lives in Uniontown, Pennsylvania. The other of Philip's children died while young. The surviving children of Philip are Zar, Harry. Henry and Hannah.
Zar Beerbower, son of Philip and Lydia (Kelly) Beerbower, was born November 10, 1848. His wife Alice, daughter of Jesse and Minerva (Robinson) Spurgeon, whom he married January 16, 1883, was born June 20, 1856. She is a granddaughter of Jesse and Catherine (Spahr) Spurgeon, who took up their residence at Glade Farms, in the earlier history of Preston county. Their son, Jesse, was born there on April 1, 1827, and died there February 28, 1908. His wife was born November 14, 1832. They had three children, one dying in infancy. Lucian Spurgeon married a Miss Kimble, and is now living in Union- town, Pennsylvania. Mae lives at Greensburg, Pennsylvania, still single.
Four children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Zar Beerbower: Jesse, born January 16, 1884; Ernest, March 9, 1885; Augusta, August 16, 1887; Isa, February 16, 1898. After marriage, Mr. Beerbower moved to the farm he now owns and lives on, and built his present com- modious residence in 1908. The farm consists of three hundred acres
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of land, all tillable, and of the best quality. Mr. Beerbower also deals in fertilizers and live stock. The family are in possession of com- fortable incomes to live on, are quiet unostentatious people, are Lutherans, but not in any other way affiliated with clubs or societies, political or otherwise. Their daughter, Augusta, married William Mitchell, July 2, 1910. They have one child named Darrel.
MRS. MABEL RESSEGGER.
The Beerbower Family are numerous and prominent. They are of German descent, and are of the blonde type a characteristic trait of the more ancient Germans who lived in prehistoric times, found in the barrow graves of Southern Europe, originally of the Rokitno bury- ing grounds, where Albinism developed. The American family, liv- ing in West Virginia and in Pennsylvania, are descendants of Philip Beerbower, son of a German emigrant, who came from the city of Rotterdam in 1732. Philip Beerbower, Jr., died at the Glade Farms in 1871. His father had moved there from New York in 1808. He married Lydia Kelley. She died in 1872. George S., their oldest son, lived near Glade Farms. He was a good farmer, and a well known Christian gentleman. His wife was Catherine DeBerry, daughter of Archibald and Mary (Hazlet) De Berry, whose history can be found in another part of this work. Their children were: William, a minister in the Evangelical Lutheran Church. He was educated in Salem, Va., married Mary Marshall, of that place, in October of 1882, and by her had one child, Clyde W. He was pastor of the Brandonville circuit when he died in 1885. (2) Allen, the second son, married Rachael Chopson, and is the father of three boys : Paul and Ralph are both super- intendents of coal and coking plants for the H. C. Frick Co. at Fair- chance and Connelsville, Pa .; Bert, the youngest of the family, is at home.
Lydia Beerbower was born August 28, 1856. In 1882, she married Milton Robinson, an educated and practical farmer who had moved from his farm near Glade Farms twenty-four years ago to Terra Alta, where he died February 8, 1906. He was a devout Christian gentle- man. Their children were: (1) Russell, who was killed on the rail- road by accident when nineteen years old; (2) Mabel Blanche, born October 9, 1890, married to Mr. Oscar E. Ressegger, a graduate of the commercial department of West Virginia Wesleyan College at Buck- hannon, and died on March 27, 1912. The Resseggers are educated
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people. Mrs. Ressegger graduated from the Terra Alta High School when sixteen years of age, and would have graduated from her Alma Mater in June, 1912, had she continued her studies there three months longer. Mr. Ressegger is at this time building a residence on his farm near Frenchton.
Mrs. Ressegger's mother, Mrs. Robinson, married the second time. Her husband is William Henry Ringer, a well-to-do farmer near Terra Alta. He is the son of John Ringer, a veteran soldier of the late Civil War and a farmer near Lenox. Mr. W. H. Ringer was born in 1847. He was formerly a devout member of the Lutheran Church, but now worships with his family with the Methodist people.
CHARLES W. BEERBOWER.
The history of the Beerbower family in America dates to the year 1752, so far as we have been able to trace the lineage.
September 26, 1752, a ship, "William and Mary," set sail from Rotterdam, Holland; master, John Moore.
It was one of a fleet conveying German and Dutch Hollanders to the then new world, America.
On ship were two brothers Casper and Philip Bierbauer, with a younger sister, who died on the voyage and was buried at sea.
Casper Bierbauer settled in York county, Pa., where he took out naturalization papers in 1777.
Among his descendants are some very notable characters. Possibly the best known was the late Vincent Beerbower, member of the State Legislature of Nebraska, and later Lieutenant Governor of Idaho.
The late Austin Bierbower, LL. D., lawyer, author and philosopher, whose name you will find in "Who's Who in America," was also a descendant of this brother.
Philip, Sr., settled on the Conewago Creek, York county, Pa., and was the father of seven children: Philip, Jr., Peter, Frederick, John, Jacob, Susan and Sarah. Of these only Philip, Jr., remained in Vir- ginia, the others emigrating to Ohio, Indiana and other western states.
Philip, Jr., is the ancestor of all the families bearing the name Beerbower in West Virginia and western Pennsylvania. He was born in 1799 and died April 18, 1872.
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The Beerbower homestead at Glade Farms, West Virginia, was near the site of old Fort Morris.
The subject of this sketch, Charles W. Beerbower, was born June 29, 1872. His father, George Stough, the oldest of the family of Philip, Jr., born November 22, 1820, died July 19, 1879, leaving a widow and five children : Martha, Mary, Charles W., Emma and Lloyd George.
It was largely due to the good management of the mother, and the oldest sister, Martha, and some help from the late Rev. W. D. Beer- bower, then a student at Roanoke College, Salem, Virginia, that the family were kept together and that true home spirit was developed that ever afterwards was a characteristic of the children, and especially of the subject of this sketch.
Charles W. left home at the age of nine years, and from that time on was carving his own way in the world, spending his boyhood days on Muddy Creek and then at Glade Farms until he was nineteen years old,-working on farms, and attending the public schools in the winter time.
At the age of nineteen he left the familiar scenes of his boyhood days, and the recollections of the stories told him of old Fort Morris and the settlement of his great-grandfather, and took up the life of a colporteur and lecturer on "Pilgrim's Progress."
After spending one summer with the Bunyan's Pilgrim Band in the famous Shenandoah Valley, Virginia, he returned to Preston and took a term in the Terra Alta Summer Normal and secured a teacher's cer- tificate, teaching his first term at the Falkenstine School, Grant district.
Following lecturing and colporteur work in the summer months and teaching in the winter season gave him a varied experience.
In 1893 he was one of a party of four who were sent to the Co- lumbian Exposition, Chicago, Ill., by John C. Winston Co. of Phila- delphia. After teaching a term in the public school at Bruceton, West Virginia, he again joined the Pilgrim Band in Washington, D. C., and traveled with Prof. McGrew until he organized "The Pilgrim Travelers" at Boonesboro, Md., August 27, 1895. He was lecturer, Prof. Martell Morrison, vocalist, and W. H. Thornton, manager. In this capacity he traveled all over southern Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia, giving in all over 300 lectures. Attending the seminary at Buckhannon, W. Va., in the spring term, 1899, and teaching a term at Masontown, W. Va., he abandoned the lecture work and entered the role of clerk in the mercantile firm of Lakin & Offut, Rowlesburg. W. Va.
DR. L. GEORGE BEERBOWER.
THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
ASTOR, LETOY IILDEN FOUND TIONS
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September 19, 1900, he married Della S. Thomas, daughter of William and Martha Thomas of Elliottsville, Pa., whose ancestors go back to the Brandenburgs of Germany.
Locating at Terra Alta and teaching one term in the public schools of Kingwood, he then accepted a position with the Union Supply Co. as clerk, but was soon promoted to manager, and which position he now holds at Monarch store, one of the best of the chain of 63 stores of the Steel Corporation.
He is a member of the Leiseuring Presbyterian church and of Gen. Worth Lodge, I. O. O. F., Connellsville, Pa.
His family sonsists of his wife, Della, and two daughters, Evangeline Lucile and Eleanor Beatrice.
He is interested in all matters pertaining to the betterment of the laboring classes and is a firm believer in the abolition of the liquor traffic as the greatest benefit that we can bestow upon the American people to help them to a better plane of living.
He is now engaged with James Bierbower of Lampasas, Texas, in compiling a book entitled "The House of Bierbower," being a history of all the different families bearing the name.
He conceived the idea of the Bierbower reunions, of which the first was held at Glade Farms, August 24, 1912, and at which over 500 people were present.
LLOYD GEORGE BEERBOWER.
In the northeast angle of Preston is a smooth expanse of farm land. The landscape is attractive and interesting. Here was the site of old Fort Morris, and here linger memories of the early days of settlement as well as of the palmy era of the once famous National Road. To this inviting neighborhood there came in the opening years of the last century, Philip Beerbower, a farmer of York county, Pennsylvania. He was a son of Philip Bierbauer, who, with a brother Casper, same from Germany in 1752. Philip, Jr., spent the remaining years of his life in his Preston home and is buried at Glade Farms. But all his children save one listened to the "call of the West" and removed to the still more inviting soil of Ohio. A third Philip, after the death of his parent, reconsidered his determination to join his brothers beyond the great stream which the French explorers so aptly termed the "Beautiful
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River." He lived and died on a farm which is only a half-hour's walk from the early home. From his thirteen sons and daughters are derived the Beerbower connection of this county.
George S., the oldest of the children of the third Philip, had for his first wife Catharine DeBerry, and for his second, Saloma Laub. He was born November 22, 1820, and died July 19, 1879. Catharine DeBerry was born April 8, 1818, and died March 18, 1857. His children were the following: (1) William D. Beerbower, born November 9, 1852, died July 7, 1884 (a Lutheran minister) ; (2) Silas, dead; (3) Allen Beerbower, born April 3, 1853, married Rachel Chopson; (4) Lydia Beerbower, born August 28, 1856, married Milton Robinson. George Beerbower married Saloma Laub, who was born March 24, 1840, died January 19, 1896-children: (1) Ida Bell, born June 3, 1862, died February, 1872; (2) Martha J., born April 2, 1864, married J. Allen Reckard; (3) Jonathan Camden, born July 4, 1865, died August 7, 1877 ; (4) Mary, born May 27, 1871, died December 6, 1887, buried near Brad- dock, Pa., Grave 12, Range I, Division 1; (5) Charles W., born June 29, 1872, married Della Thomas; (6) Emma Alice, born March 3, 1874, married T. L. Gribble; (7) Lloyd George, born June 2, 1877, married Elizabeth Stafford.
The somewhat early death of the father left the household, and par- ticularly its younger members, in circumstances far from easy. The remarriage of the widow proved most sadly unfortunate. It is due fundamentally to the care and training of a Christian mother that the subject of our sketch has achieved his success in life. Much also is due to an older sister, Mrs. Martha Reckard. She was untiring in her efforts to help her mother and the younger children. Yet with no home peculiarly their own, with no moneyed inheritance to look forward to, with but meager school training in the early years of youth, but with the commendable determination to "make good," the boys, Charles W. and Lloyd G., proceeded to carve out a career for them- selves. We mention the two brothers in the same connection, since they are not far apart in age and were associated a long while in com- mon activities. What is still more to the point, each has achieved a very gratifying degree of success.
As we have just observed, the brothers did not appear in the world with a spoon in the mouth that was either silver or gold. Yet they were endowed with health and strength, with the willingness to work, and with that power of steady application which is a characteristic of the German strain. Their progress was sure, even if it did not come
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with that speed which ofttimes is so detrimental to personal character.
Lloyd George Beerbower was born June 2, 1877, at which time his parents were living in the adjoining county of Fayette, in Pennsylvania. Two years later they returned to Glade Farms, and their son has ever since acknowledged Preston as his home. As soon as the boy attained a size and strength that made him efficient on the farm, his time was thus employed until he had reached the age of seventeen. During this period of his life his educational advantages were simply those of the average farm boy of the period.
A somewhat unique career now presented itself. The youth was fortunate in coming under the notice of Professor N. N. McGrew of Philadelphia, an experienced seller of books. His kindly and practical interest was very helpful and important, and he readily prevailed upon his new friend to join his "Pilgrim Band," composed of a few young men. As colporteurs, and as sellers of that immortal allegory, the "Pilgrim's Progress," the band traversed a considerable territory, cover- ing counties in Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia, as well as West Virginia. From the ever-shifting base of operations, the members of the troup would take diverging paths in order to make a house-to-house canvass of the surrounding neighborhood.
After being thus employed for some time, the young man became associated with Charles W., his older brother. They now prosecuted the same work as principals and not as employees. They traveled. mainly in a wagon specially arranged for their purpose. They gave evening lectures on "Pilgrim's Progress," these lectures being illus- trated by a stereopticon. During the hours of daylight the neighbor- hood was as before canvassed for sales of the book in a binding offered at a very reasonable price.
Such a career is of priceless worth to an ambitious young man. In selling books, a vocation which the late Dwight L. Moody said would prove the mettle of any person, the brothers achieved marked success. Their work was an education at once practical and liberal. It lifted them above the narrow sympathies of a home neighborhood and made them acquainted with numerous towns, villages and school neighbor- hoods, and with the denizens of the same. It turned the quondam plow- boys into polished gentlemen. It opened an avenue by means of which they found themselves. In short, it gave them an adaptability and efficiency which could not have been secured had they remained all this while close to the home of their childhood. Nor were the advantages all on one side. By scattering literature of an unexceptionable sort, and
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by furnishing public entertainments of an uplifting character, the brothers rendered a service to the communities they visited.
At length they put an end to this migratory life. It is to their credit that they determined to do so. As a very serviceable training, their work had fulfilled its purpose. To have pursued it indefinitely would not alone have perpetuated an unsettled career : it would insensibly have drawn the young men into a rut and lured them into performing their duties in a mechanical way.
Like his brother Charles, the junior partner now turned his atten- tion to school work, teaching three successful winter terms in the rural schools of Preston. While thus engaged he was a prominent and useful member of the county institutes. To fit himself the better for this new career, he availed himself of private instruction from that un- usual and gifted character, the late Samuel T. Wiley. That teacher- historian was a firm friend to the two brothers, and to him they feel deeply indebted for his sage advice as well as his helpful tuition.
For two years more young Beerbower resumed traveling work, but in a broader and more advantageous field. In the service of a Pennsyl- vania company, whose line was the selling of views, he traveled not only in the states with which he was already familiar, but also in Ohio, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, Ken- tucky, and the District of Columbia. As a consequence, his knowledge of places and of people was much further extended, and he was enabled to prepare for the permanent calling which he had by this time chosen.
He took up his studies in Cincinnati, graduating in June, 1905, with the degree of Doctor of Dental Surgery. His travels in the South had developed a purpose to locate at Galveston, Texas, for the active pursuit of his profession. But the more tonic air of the Preston hills, and, above all, the loyalty of the many friends who dwell among them, caused this design to be reconsidered. During his summer vacations they had put his dental services into request. So on the completion of his course of study he at once located in Terra Alta, the' energetic and wide-awake metropolis of the county.
With regard to his practice alone, the success of Dr. Beerbower was immediate, and it has been continuous. In connection with Frank Zeller, he completed in 1910 the Beerbower-Zeller Building, on Wash- ington Street. On the second floor is his suite of dental apartments. These rooms are as well equipped as the up-to-date dental offices found in the cities. Dr. Beerbower is a charter member of the West Virginia
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Dental Society, and since the organization of the same in 1906 he has never missed any of its meetings. He has served on its most important committees, and as its president in 1913. He is also secretary-treasurer of the Board of Dental Examiners for West Virginia, having been ap- pointed in July, 1911, by Governor Glasscock.
The older Beerbowers were Lutherans, but since locating in Terra Alta, the doctor has transferred his allegiance to the Methodist Episcopal Church. He has long been active in church work and is regular in his attendance upon devotional as well as business meetings. For several years he was superintendent of the Methodist Sunday school at Terra Alta, and he continues to teach a class.
With respect to fraternal organizations, Dr. Beerbower is a member of the Masonic order, and of the Knights of Pythias, the Woodmen of the World, and the Modern Woodmen of America. Of the first-named society he is a Past Master, and he holds the Royal Arch degree.
In matters of political opinion, the doctor's people have in the main adhered to the Democratic creed. But he himself early gave his ad- hesion to the Republican party, although he has never hesitated to support the candidate of another ticket whenever he has deemed the in- Lerests of true citizenship to require such action. Twice has Dr. Beer- bower been called upon by his townsmen to serve as mayor of Terra Alta, and he has served four years on the Board of Education for Port- land district.
June 28, 1906, Lloyd George Beerbower was married to Miss Mary Elizabeth Stafford, who had been educated at the Preparatory School at Keyser, and who, like himself, had taught in the public schools. Mrs. Beerbower is the youngest of the six children of William E. and Mary (Shahan) Stafford. Both the Staffords and the Shahans come of old Monongalia and Preston families. The father-in-law was a Federal soldier and a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Doctor and Mrs. Beerbower have been blessed with two children: Albert Stafford. born April 9, 1909, and Fred Vance, born July 30, 1912.
In personal contact, Dr. Beerbower is courteous, genial and ap- proachable. These engaging qualities are linked with those of sincerity, integrity and straightforwardness. It is a sterling character as well as patient effort that has brought him the commendation and the patronage of the people with whom he has cast his lot. The writer of this sketch knew him quite intimately during a period of ten years, and therefore speaks from personal observation.
652
PRESTON COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA ORLANDO C. CRANE.
Born July 4, 1874. Died November 12, 1910.
Swift as an arrow came death to this young man, who had every hope and natural expectation to round out his life work and live to a mature age. His brief illness overcame him while at the helm of an undertaking for his town and community. He came home Thursday, November 4, prostrated from overwork, seized with pneumonia in acute form, and never again mingled with his fellows. His history is short, but his years were crowded with undertakings great and small, earnest endeavors, ambitions realized and unrealized, for from his boyhood he labored zealously and incessantly to succeed.
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