History of Charleston and Kanawha County, West Virginia and representative citizens, Part 94

Author: Laidley, William Sydney, 1839-1917. [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1911
Publisher: Chicago, Ill., Richmond-Arnold publishing co
Number of Pages: 1066

USA > West Virginia > Kanawha County > Charleston > History of Charleston and Kanawha County, West Virginia and representative citizens > Part 94

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

William Stuck, the paternal grandfather, was also of German extraction but was born at Selinsgrove, where he followed the black- smith and wagonmaking trades. He married Lydia Kister, who was born in Snyder county, Pa. Mr. Stuck has one brother and three sis- ters, namely: Edmund, who is a painter by trade and resides at Bucyrus, O .; Jennie, who is a Mrs. Jones and lives in Ohio; Alice, who resides at Syracuse, O .; and Martha, who is the wife of Robert Mulligan, of Columbus, O.

Until he was fourteen years old, Henry F. Stuck attended the country schools near his father's farm, after which he worked as a farmer on the home place until he was twenty- three years of age, when he decided to try rail- roading for a time. For seven years he was fireman for the T. & O. C. Railroad, and when the K. & M. Railroad was first put in operation, he delivered the engines. Mr. Stuck has been in the railroad business for many years past, and has served in many capacities, including that of locomotive engineer. He assisted in building the old Kelly's Creek Railroad and the West Virginia and Southern Railroad and later, for three years was with the Norfolk & Western Railroad and for three more was on the Kanawha & Central Railroad, also assisted in constructing the Campbell's Creek Railway, and for twenty-seven years has been associated with two railroad companies. He has also operated his own farm in Elk district.

Mr. Stuck was married to Miss Jennie Ken- ney, who was born December 25, 1868, at Gi- rard, O., a daughter of Mathew and Anna (Mock) Kenney, the former of whom was in the rolling-mill business. The following chil- dren have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Stuck: Maggie, who is deceased; Mary, who is the wife of F. A. Light, of Charleston; and Mat- tie, William F., Grace, Fred, Eddie, Robert, Charles, Vernie and Julia, all at home, and one son, who was a brakeman on a railroad and was killed on an engine in 1904. In poli-

tics, Mr. Stuck has always been a Democrat, but has never desired public office. He is one of the charter members of the Knights of Pythias at Mammoth, W. Va., and has passed all the chairs in Stanton Lodge, No. 128; and was also one of the charter members of Lodge No. 44, American Mechanics, at Brownstown.

MARTIN V. GODBEY, M. D., physician and surgeon, at Charleston, W. Va., a mem- ber of the state board of health, president of the Kanawha county board of health, and president of the West Virginia Anti-Tuber- culosis League, has won eminence in his pro- fession through persistent effort and unflag- ging determination, having more or less made his own way in the world from boyhood. He was born December 19, 1879, in Raleigh county, W. Va., of North Carolina parentage.

Dr. Godbey's early educational opportuni- ties were meager but he made the most of them and by the time he was fifteen years of age he was teaching school and earning the means with which to still further advance his own education. In this way he provided for three years at Marshall College, W. Va., spent two years in Grant University, Chatta- nooga, then entered the Baltimore Medical College, where he was graduated with his de- gree of M. D., in the class of 1905. He began practice in Boone county, where he remained until 1909. It was while he was in Boone county that he became interested in political questions and his attitude on many very im- portant ones was that of an intellectual man with trained understanding, and as such he was chosen by the Republican party as its candidate for the state legislature. He was elected and had the distinction of being the only Republican elected from that county to the legislature since 1863. During his serv- ice of one term, 1907-1908, he was chairman of the committee on medicine and sanitation, and brought these subjects more fully to the attention of the public than had ever before been done, and at the same time was an active member of numerous other committees. After his honorable retirement from public life he returned to Boone county but shortly after made arrangements to come to Charleston

MARTIN V. GODBEY, M. D.

711

AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS

where his field of professional effort would be wider. His ambition has been realized and he is now not only in the enjoyment of a large practice, specializing in surgery to some ex- tent, but he is also recognized as one of the reliable men of science in the profession, and official honors have been tendered him by numerous organizations. He is identified with the county, state and the American Medical Associations, contributes to their literature and frequently is a lecturer. . In May, 1909, he was appointed a member of the state board of health by Governor Glass- cock, and in 1910, secretary of the board of examining surgeons.

In 1905, Dr. Godbey was married to Miss Florrie Smoot, at Madison, W. Va. Mrs. Godbey was reared and educated in Madison county and was a successful teacher prior to her marriage. Dr. and Mrs. Godbey have one daughter and one son: Ella Smoot and John Lamoyne. They attend the Presbyterian church. Dr. Godbey is a member of Odel Lodge, No. 115, A. F. & A. M., and of the Odd Fellows, Knights of Pythias and the Elks.

JOSEPH W. ROCHE, one of the leading business men of Charleston, came to West Vir- ginia in the summer of 1893 as manager of the Standard Folding Bed Company, then lo- cated at Point Pleasant. He was born in Liverpool, England, in 1856. His father, Pat- rick Roche, married Eliza Burns of northern Scotland. Two children were born to them, Joseph William and Katharine.

Joseph Roche, the grandfather, came to the United States in 1845 and lived and died at Williamsport, Pa., where he had become a well-to-do contractor. In 1860 Patrick Roche with his two children, his wife had died shortly after the birth of the daughter, came to Phila- delphia where he lived for three years, moving from there to Williamsport. At Williamsport he enlisted for service in the Civil War, enter- ing the 7th Pa. Vol. Inf., and remaining until the war closed two years later. In 1870, hav- ing again married, he went to Grand Rapids, Mich., and remained there with a lumber com- pany until his death which occurred in 1895.

He left beside his first two children, four sons, all of whom are living. The daughter, Katha- rine Roche, died in January, 1910, at Williams- port at the home of an uncle with whom she had lived from early childhood.

For twenty-three years before coming to West Virginia, Joseph W. Roche lived at Grand Rapids, Mich., where for seven years he was with the Welch Folding Bed people. From there he came to this state because of the greater opportunities offered. Realizing that Charleston afforded better manufacturing and shipping facilities than Point Pleasant, he was instrumental in moving the Standard Folding Bed Company's plant from Point Pleasant to this city in 1895. He was secre- tary and local manager of the business until 1901 when the Standard Folding Bed Com- pany consolidated with the Fuller, Hutsinpillar Furniture Company of Gallipolis, Ohio, and reorganized under the name of the Ohio Val- ley Furniture Co. Mr. Roche remained with the new company for six months, then re- signed and organized the National Veneer Company of this city, for whom he acted as manager for seven years. He sold his stock and retired from the company October, 1908. A few months later he engaged in the grocery business.

At Grand Rapids, Mr. Roche was married to Miss Mary A. Sprague, who is a daughter of Paschal Wheeler Sprague and Lucinda (Hoover) Sprague.

Paschal Wheeler Sprague, a descendant of early English colonists, moved to Grand Rap- ids from New York city. He was well known in real estate circles and owned much property. He died in 1876. His widow survives and re- sides with her youngest daughter, Mrs. Charles Norton, at Grand Rapids, being now in her eighty-second year.

Mr. and Mrs. Roche have one daughter, Mary Margaret, recently graduated from and at present professionally connected with the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Mrs. Roche has been for years secretary of the Mis- sionary Society of the Kanawha Presbyterian church, of which church the family are mem- bers. She is prominent in many circles and is

712

HISTORY OF KANAWHA COUNTY

secretary of the Woman's Club of Charleston. Mr. Roche is politically a Republican and served one term as member of the council from the Sixth ward. He is a member of all the Masonic bodies and is past high priest of the Chapter.

WALTER FRANKLIN COBBS,* mine foreman and carpenter at Mine No. 105 of the Sunday Creek Coal Company, at Mammoth, W. Va., was born January 1, 1872, at St. Al- bans, Kanawha county, W. Va., in which county he has spent his life. He is a son of Lewis L. and Belle (Hall) Cobbs.

Lewis L. Cobbs was born in Virginia and is a son of Hiram and Threna Cobbs, who on coming to Kanawha county located at Spring Hill, six miles below Charleston. Lewis L. Cobbs grew up on his father's farm there and then learned the trades of cooper and carpen- ter. He still resides at Spring Hill. He mar- ried Belle Hall, whose people also came from Virginia, and she also survives, both she and husband being about seventy years of age. Five children were born to them, namely: Walter Franklin; William; Maude M., who is the wife of Garland Turner; Arthur, and Co- lumbus.

Walter F. Cobbs remained at home with his father until he was fifteen years of age. He then became a railroad man and served in va- rious positions, in the meanwhile learning the carpenter's trade, in this capacity coming to Mammoth in 1899. He later became boss car- penter for his present company and in 191I was made mine foreman. Mr. Cobbs has a fine record for reliability and efficiency.

On October 12, 1894, Mr. Cobbs was mar- ried, to Miss Maggie May Bowen, daughter of William Bowen, and they have seven children; Howard, Maude, Edmund, Irene, Leslie, Nell and Lionel. Mr. Cobbs is an Odd Fellow and belongs to the Encampment at Mammoth and also to the Knights of Pythias lodge at the same place.

HON. SAMUEL C. HARLESS, who was elected mayor of East Bank, Kanawha county, W. Va., in 1906, for many years has been prominent in the councils of the Republican

party in this section and has frequently served in public office. He was born March 16, 1859, on Doddy's Creek, in Boone county, now West Virginia, eight miles from Madison, Boone county, and is a son of Edward and Nancy (Curry) Harless.

The parents of Mr. Harless were both born in Boone county and both survive and are resi- dents of Kanawha county, the father being in his eighty-eighth year and the mother in her seventy-seventh. The paternal grandparents were natives of Tazewell county, Va., and the grandfather met death by one of those unfor- seen accidents which were numerous even be- fore the present day of rapid and dangerous transportation. A tree fell on his horse and he was crushed beneath it. The maternal grandparents of Mr. Harless were Samuel and Irene (Hill) Curry, and they lived and died in Boone county. Edward Harless is a minister in the Baptist church and during his active years also carried on farming. Of the thir- teen children born to Edward Harless by two wives three are deceased, two of the first mar- riage being to Nancy Curry. Charles, the fifth born of the family, was killed by a fall of slate in the mine in which he was working. George W. is a farmer living in Elk district, Kanawha county; Catherine is the wife of Jackson Myers, of Dial, on the Elk river. Samuel C., was the next in order of birth of this family. Mary J., is the wife of William Wells and they live near Marmet, Kanawha county. Elmer E. lives on the old homestead in Boone county. Charles is deceased. Wil- liam Wesley is a farmer in Boone county. Silas Edward lives on Rock creek, four miles from the county seat of Boone county. Ulysses G. is an insurance agent, living at Glen Jean in Fayette county. Rachel Arvena is the wife of John Perdue, of Racine, Boone county. Theodosia is the wife of James Stone of Boone county.

Samuel C. Harless was reared on a farm and attended the country schools with some regularity until about seventeen years of age and then spent four years at lumbering in. Boone, Lincoln and Kanawha counties. For three years he was bookkeeper for Leroy

713

AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS

Douglass, who operated a sawmill and fur- nished lumber for the Cabin Creek branch of the C. & O. railroad, and then became a coal miner. For eighteen years he worked in the mines in Kanawha and Fayette counties and during this time he won the confidence of his fellow miners to such a degree that he was elected secretary and treasurer of the United Mine Workers. For three years Mr. Harless occupied those offices and then was elected president of the district composed of West Virginia and a part of Kentucky, and served until 1898. He also was a clerk for a busi- ness firm at Hanley for two years, then lived at Dego, now Pratt, for one year, subsequently becoming collector for the Brooks & Mead Credit House. In 1901 he accepted the ap- pointment to the office of deputy sheriff and served four years under Sheriff Jarrett, and also served as appraiser under the Dawson Tax Law and made the first appraisements in Malden and Cabin Creek Districts. In 1907 he became mine foreman for the Belmont Coal Company and served eight months, when he was elected committee clerk in the House of Representatives, and served in this position three terms. Mr. Harless then represented the Independent Coal Operators' organization in the distribution of coal cars for a period of two years. In the fall of 1908 he was elected a member of the House of Delegates from Kanawha county and served one term, and since then has been deputy sheriff, a faithful and efficient officer in every position he has ever held.

On February 10, 1886, Mr. Harless was married to Miss Lydia White, a daughter of Samuel H. and Emma (Rader) White, of Coalburg, Kanawha county, and they have one daughter, Irene, a young lady of fifteen years. She is a member of the Calvary Baptist church of West Charleston, while her par- ents belong to the Hampton Baptist church of East Bank. Mr. Harless belongs to Morning Star Lodge, No. 63, Odd Fellows, and to Abraham Council and Encampment.

HENRY H. BRANUM,* a general farmer in Elk district and a merchant at Two-Mile, was born in Pike county, Ky., May 20, 1859,

and is a son of Reuben and Harriet (Fran- ciske ) Branum, and a grandson of Rev. James Branum, who was a Baptist minister well known in his day, a native of Lexington, Kentucky.

Reuben Branum was born in Pike county, Ky., a son of Rev. James and Polly (Kinney) Branum. He followed agricultural pursuits both before and after moving to Virginia, where he died in 1895, aged sixty-five years. He married Harriet, a daughter of Louis and Polly (Phipps) Franciske, one of the oldest families of Scott county. Of the family of eleven children there are five survivors : Henry H.“, William, who is a merchant in Virginia; Samuel, who is a farmer; Betty, who is the wife of James Williams, of Virginia; and Mary, who is the wife of F. Wright, a farmer in Virginia.

Henry H. Branum assisted his father on the home farm after his school days were over and was only sixteen years of age when he first be- came a merchant, conducting a store for four years. After his marriage he engaged in stock dealing, distilling and contracting for carpenter work. In 1891 he came to Kanawha county, where he contracted for and built eighty-five houses for the mines at Pocahontas. He fol- lowed his trade uninterruptedly at Charleston until 1906, since when he has been interested as above mentioned. Mr. Branum is a Demo- crat and while in East Virginia served in pub- lic office for six years.

Mr. Branum married Miss Belle Dotson, who was born in Virginia, January 12, 1872, and is a daughter of James and Cassie ( Robin- son) Dotson, natives of Illinois, who came to the South before the Civil War and at one time owned seventy-five slaves, besides coal mines, Mr. and Mrs. Branum have four children: Eura, a young lady of seventeen years; Euther, aged sixteen years; George Ward, eleven, and Eunice, thirteen years.

JOHN L. BEARD, optometrist, who is well and favorably known all over West Virginia, resides on his estate of forty-two acres, situ- ated near the city of Charleston. He was born December 29, 1858, in Winston-Salem,

714

HISTORY OF KANAWHA COUNTY

North Carolina, of which state his paternal ancestors were among the most important and prominent men for generations.

John Lewis Beard, the great-grandfather of Dr. Beard, owned a large plantation in Rowan county, N. C., and was high sheriff of the county under King George III, and continued to hold the office after the Revolutionary War. His son, also John Lewis, was a graduate of the University of North Carolina, a classmate of James K. Polk, who later became President of the United States, and was a leading figure in professional life in Rowan county, where his death occurred in advanced age.

William Howard Beard, father of Dr. Beard and son of John Lewis Beard (2), was born near Winston-Salem, where he still re- sides. He served for four years in the Confed- erate army during the Civil War and was cap- tured by the Federal forces at Petersburg, and was a prisoner of war on Hart's Island and at Point Lookout. In early manhood he married a daughter of John Benjamin Kingsbury, the latter of whom was born at Boston, Mass., and when twenty-one years of age came to Stokes county, N. C. He afterward removed to Vir- ginia, and died at Dobson, Surry county, N. C., while visiting a daughter, at the age of eighty- four years. He was a strong sympathizer with the South during the Civil War and all of his sons served in the Confederate army and two of them died while in the service. The chil- dren born to William H. Beard and wife were the following: John L .; Dora, who died in 1907, in Virginia, was the wife of William Rice who survives with three sons and two daughters ; Clarence Lee, who is a printer by trade, married Miss Lucinda Hutchens, of Yad- kin county, N. C., has one son, William How- ard, and they reside at Charleston; and Mary Virginia, who is the wife of William Agee, of Salem, N. C., and has three sons and two daughters.

John L. Beard was reared in his native place, attended the local schools and then studied pharmacy and became a licensed pharmacist before he became a student in optometry. He is a post graduate of the South Bend College of Optics, of the class of 1896, after spending some time under leading professors of this

branch of science in the city of New York. He has been and still is a very enthusiastic student in his specialty, and is a valued and highly honored member of the Scientific Section of the American Association of Opticians. For a remarkable thesis presented to the Section he bore off a special certificate, the name of his paper being "The Functional Relation of Vision to the Mental Status." This thesis won him a first class certificate and a still more coveted one of grand honors, from this body, this being the first certificate of Grand Honors ever issued by the scientific or literary section. This finely engraved certificate was awarded him in 1909. He had also received first prize for a thesis read before the association at Kan- sas City in 1907; the title of this paper, The Evolution and Decadence of the Sense of Vision, elicited much discussion. Dr. Beard is a constant and welcome contributor to cur- rent literature and does not confine himself to papers on his profession, on the other hand discussing public and educational questions with equal facility, and showing deep thought on the various problems of life.

Dr. Beard was married at Winston, N. C., to Miss Ida M. Crumpler, a native of Salem, her family being of old Moravian stock. She was the mother of three children: Robert Lee, Bertram Talbott, and Basil Gray. The second child died in infancy. Robert Lee Beard was given excellent educational advantages and then became connected with the United States Forestry department, and later with the British Cotton Growers' Association, a branch of the Agricultural department, by which he was commissioned as a member of an exploring ex- pedition to Western Africa. He went 500 miles into the wilderness with a party of na- tives, and was the only white man in the party, and had numerous interesting adventures and met with many dangers but was able to return with satisfactory reports. He is now stationed at Fort Worth, Texas, and is interested in the importing of the rhinoceros and hippopotamus from Africa for commercial purposes. Basil Gray Beard is in the shoe business at Winston, N. C.

Dr. Beard was married second to Miss

715

AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS

Annie Quarles, who was born in Putnam county, W. Va. They have had three children born to them, all daughters: Dora, aged thir- teen, a student in the public schools; Alma, aged eleven, who is also a student; and Della, who is now five years of age. Dr. Beard and wife are members of the Magazine Baptist church, in which he has been clerk for some time. He devotes a large part of his leisure time to breeding graded stock and fine fowls. He loves and appreciates Nature in all its forms, and enjoys the situation of his home which is located in a beautiful section.

BENJAMIN S. SMITHERS,* lockmaster at Lock No. 4, at Dickinson Station, on the K. & M. Railroad, fifteen miles up the Kana- wha river from Charleston, was born Novem- ber 20, 1866, in Malden district, Kanawha county, W. Va., and is a son of David S. and Emily (Whitteker) Smithers.

David S. Smithers, who was born on the Dickinson farm at Malden, October 8, 1837, was a son of Benjamin S. and Eliza (Shrews- bury) Smithers. Grandfather Smithers was born in Ohio and was a young man when he came to Kanawha county and located near Malden, in the early days of the salt making industry in this section. He married Eliza Shrewsbury, a daughter of Joel Shrewsbury, who was one of the early salt manufacturers, who, with Colonel Dickinson, became the owner of hundreds of acres of land south of Charles- ton. Benjamin S. Smithers became also a man of property and of importance in this section in which he lived until his death in 1881. His widow survived until 1896, dying at the age of eighty-four years. They had seven chil- dren, David Shrewsbury being the eldest. The latter followed an agricultural life until the opening of the Civil War, and owned a farm near what is now Belle, Malden district. In the beginning of hostilities, he enlisted as a private in the Confederate army and took part in many battles without being seriously injured. He was once made a prisoner, but continued in the service until the unhappy struggle was over. In 1866 he married Emily Whitteker, a daugh- ter of Charles Whitteker, a native of Charles- ton, and a son of Aaron Whitteker, who was

the original owner of the land on which the present Y. M. C. A. building now stands at Charleston. His death occuring on what was then his home farm. The maternal grandmoth- er of Benjamin S. Smithers, was Margaret Eoff, who was a daughter of the late Dr. Eoff, of Wheeling, W. Va., whose memory was com- memorated there by the naming of a street in his honor. David S. Smithers died in 1903, his wife having passed away in August, 1891. They had four children: Benjamin S .; Rose, who is the wife of E. C. Magaw, of Malden district; John, who died in infancy; and Mar- garet, who is the wife of U. B. Keeney, of Malden district.

Benjamin S. Smithers spent his boyhood on the farm and attended school in the country, being a pupil where his mother had formerly been a teacher. In 1888 he was appointed lock hand at Lock No. 5, ten miles above Charles- ton, by A. M. Scott and remained there until January, 1892, and from then until 1904 at Lock No. 9, in 1898 having been appointed lockmaster at Lock No. 5. He came to Lock No. 4 as lockmaster in October, 1904. He is looked upon as one of the most efficient and reliable men on the line.

Mr. Smithers was married June 30, 1887, to Miss Hattie Bullington, a daughter of D. H. Bullington, who came as a young man from Virginia to Kanawha county, W. Va. Mr. and Mrs. Smithers have seven children, namely: Carol, who is the wife of John M. Londeree, residing at Lock No. 7, and has one son, John M., Jr .; and Charles D., John B., Earl Q., David A. and Marguerite and Fran- cis, the two last named being twins. Mr. Smithers is a Democrat. He is past master of Salina Lodge No. 27, A. F. & A. M., and past master in the Odd Fellows and Knights of Pythias at Marmet, being a charter member of the latter.

MRS. A. L. LANGLEY, a well known and highly respected resident of Charles- ton, W. Va., widow of the late Augustus L. Langley, is a representative of the Clarkson family of old Virginia .. Accord- ing to the Rev. Edgar Woods, in his His- tory of Albemarle county, Va., published

716

HISTORY OF KANAWHA COUNTY

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of Charleston and Kanawha County, West Virginia and representative citizens, Part 94

Author: Laidley, William Sydney, 1839-1917. [from old catalog] Publication date: 1911 Publisher: Chicago, Ill., Richmond-Arnold publishing co Number of Pages: 1066

Author: Laidley, William Sydney, 1839-1917. [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1911
Publisher: Chicago, Ill., Richmond-Arnold publishing co
Number of Pages: 1066