History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 2, Part 103

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In the early '50s General Duval returned to the old ho in what is now West Virginia, and in 1853 he engaged in 1 mercantile business at Wellsburg. He thus continued activities until the outbreak of the Civil war, when promptly tendered his services in defense of the Uni He was elected major of the First West Virginia Volunt Infantry, which enlisted on the first call for a term of the months. He continued in service by re-enlistment a served as major of his command until he was advanc to the office of colonel of the Ninth West Virginia Volunt Infantry. In this office he had for some time command the Second Division, Eighth Army Corps. He was tw wounded in action, first at Fort Republic and later Opequan, besides having had eleven horses either killed wounded under him. He led the Veteran Corps to the sta of conflict near Richmond, Virginia, and aided in preventi the escape of General Lee and his forces. At Stannt Virginia, he captured the cavalry under command of G eral Rosser, and at that place he learned of the surren( of General Lee. At Staunton also an attempt was made assassinate him. After the declaration of peace Gene Duval had charge of a military sub-division established Wheeling. He served four years and nine months as gallant soldier and officer and took part in thirty-fc battles.

After the close of the war General Duval bent his splend energies to the civic and material rehabilitation and : vancement of West Virginia. He had won in his milite career promotion to the brevet rank of brigadier gener After the war the general was soon elected to Congress,

IfSt. Duval.

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wch he served four terms, with characteristie loyalty and of iency. He served two terms in the West Virginia Senate a four terms as a member of the House of Delegates of th State Legislature. He held for two years the office of mutant general of West Virginia, and for fourteen years w collector of internal revenue, an office from which he rered in 18>4. Ile was a stalwart and influential advocate othe principles of the republican party, and was a broad- m ded, liberal and progressive citizen. He continued his ne denee at Wellsburg until the elose of his life. General D.al was a man among men, and few had broader or riper Gerience in connection with human activities and service. O his youthful career on the western frontier he was the find and associate of such historie persons at Kit Carson, Aert Pike and Buffalo Bill.

n 1853 was solemnized the marriage of General Duval a. Miss Mary Deborah Kuhn, daughter of Adam Kuhn, d first president of the old National Bank of Wellsburg, Vginia, now West Virginia. Mrs. Duval continued to re- si, in the old home at Wellsburg until she, too, passed u the life eternal, her death having occurred April 23, 1 4, and her memory being revered by all who came within d compass of her gentle and gracious influence. Of the ৳ children eight attained to maturity: Walter K. is a mident of Spokane, Washington; Mrs. Anna Dalzell, a wow, resides at Los Angeles, California; Adam Isaac is a mident of Findlay, Ohio; William II., a commercial sales- an, resides at the old home in company with his two sisters, Is. Weirich, a widow, and Mrs. Caldwell, whose husband M'wise resides in this fine old homestead; Frank owns al resides upon a part of the old home farm in Brooke Cinty; and Harding H., youngest of the surviving children, ithe present sheriff of Brooke County.

Harding H. Duval, who is now giving effective service a sheriff of his native county, gained his early education i the schools at Wellsburg, in which eity his birth oe- e red Mareh 18, 1867. As a youth he passed a few years ithe West, where he worked on the cattle range and was f a time employed in a store at Omaha. After his return t West Virginia he became associated with T. A. Gillespie &Company, of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, a coneern in rail- r.d construction work and general contracting. Later he L'ame inspector for the Whittaker-Glessner Company at i new manufacturing plant at Beechbottom, Brooke (unty, and in this capacity he served until the fall of 120, when he was elected sheriff of Brooke County, as r ninee on the republican tieket. In the election he received 104 majority and ran 400 votes ahead of his party tieket. Ge sheriff is giving a most efficient and satisfactory admin- iration, and in his native county his circle of friends is hiited only by that of bis acquaintances. lle married 2ss Edna Meek, of Cross Creek Distriet, Brooke County, id they have two children, Thomas H. and Edna Harding. 'omas llarding is chief deputy in the office of his father.

JOB WELTON JOHNSTON, M. D., maintains his office at :1 Goff Building, in the City of Clarksburg, and the scope al character of his professional practice marks him dis- fietly as one of the leading physicians and surgeons of irrison County. The doctor was born at Petersburg, lant County, this state, Mareb 9. 1-59, and is a son of v. John and Sallie C. (Welton) Johnston. Rev. John .hnston was born in County Tyrone, Ireland, of staneh Soteh-Irisb lineage, and was reared and educated in his tive land, whence he came to the United States in 1853. landed in the port of New York City and soon after- .rd came to what is now the state of West Virginia. 'ter residing a brief interval at Moorefield he established Is residence at Petersburg, and there, in 1854, was solem- ked his marriage to Miss Sallie C. Welton, who was born ¿ that place, a daughter of Job Welton, her father having en a man of wealth and influence in Grant County. John d Sallie C. Johnston became the parents of eight ehil- en, namely: William Seymour, Job Welton, Margaret in, John Edward, Joseph Eggleston, Felix Seymour, enry Foote, and Sallie M. Rev. John Johnston was a in of high education and fine intellectual gifts. He eame a elergyman of the Presbyterian Church and for

the long period of forty-one years was engaged in the work of the ministry at Petersburg, where he died in September, 1894, aged seventy-three years and revered by all who had come within the sphere of his benignant influence. llis widow was eighty-five years und six months of age at the time of her death. Rev. John Johnston owned, resided ujwon and gave his personal supervision to one of the ex eellent farms near Petersburg, and it was on this home stead that Doctor Johnston, of this review, was reared to adult age, his literary or academic education having twon gained largely under the able tutorship of his father. At the age of eighteen years Ductor Johnston beenme a clerk in a drug store at Petersburg, and in 18s1 he went to the State of Kansas, where he found employment in a drug store at Niekerson. In 1883 he returned to West Vir ginia, and in the autumn of that year he was matriculated in the College of Physicians & Surgeons in the City of Baltimore, Maryland, from which institution he received his degree of Doctor of Medicine in the year 1.85. For one year thereafter he was engaged in practier at Thomas, West Virginia, and he then established his residence at Davis, a town six miles distant from Thomas, in Tueker County, where he not only developed a substantial practice but also became actively identified with business interests. The doctor continued his residence at Davis until January 2, 1900, when he found a broader sphere of professional service by removing to the City of Clarksburg, where he controls a large and representative general practice. la 1896 lie took a post-graduate course in surgery at the Post Graduate School & Hospital in New York City, and he is known as a specially skilled surgeon, with many success- tul operations, both major and minor, to his eredit. He ix a stalwart in the local ranks of the demeeratie party, and fraternally is a Knight Templar Mason and a member of the Mystie Shrine.

December 2, 1587, recorded the marriage of Doctor Johnston to Miss Mary P. Bye, and of this union have been horn four children: Paul Welton, who was born in 18-9, died in 1892; Paxson Bye, who was born in 192, died in 1×94; Margaret was born August 2, 1897, and remains at the parental home, as does also Sarab Eloise, who was born June 1, 1900.

IRVING D. COLE, M. D. Sinee removing to Clarksburg, Doetor Cole has largely confined his professional practice to special work in the eye, ear, nose and throat, and as a specialist he is widely known throughout that seetion of the state.

Ductor Cole is a native of Harrison County, born on a farm July 21, 1-81. ITis parents, Daniel M. and Elizabeth (Wolverton) Cole, were of English ancestry and of Old Virginia stoek, were born in Barbour County, West Vir- ginia, but spent all their married lives on a farm in Har- rison County. His father died in 1911 at the age of sixty- two and the mother is still living. They were the parents of ten children and eight survive.

Doctor Cole grew up on the farm and after the rural schools he entered Broaddus College, then located at ('larks burg, where he was graduated in 1901. For three years he tanght school and then entered West Virginia University for the purpose of preparing himself for the law. A year and a half later an illness interrupted his law studies anl when he recovered he made an entire change in his profes sional plans and entered the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Baltimore, where he was graduated M. D. in 1908. Doetor Cole first practiced at Hillsboro in Poea- hontas County and enjoyed a good business and an increas ing professional reputation there for about seven year -. During 1914-15 he spent two periods of post-graduate work in eye, ear, nose and throat at Chicago and New York, and after this he located at Clarksburg, where he has practiced as a specialist since 1915. Besides his large private prac. tiee he is a member of the staff of St. Mary's Hospital, being the eye, ear, nose and throat specialist, and is also a lecturer to the Hospital Training School. Doetor Cole is a member of the Harrison County, West Virginia, American and Southern Medieal associations, and in 1919-20 was secretary of the County Medical Society. He is a thirty-

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second degree Scottish Rite Mason, a member of the Mystic Shrine, and is a Baptist.

July 21, 1908, he married Miss Regina France, daughter of Jacob and Ida J. (Cullimore) Franee, of Baltimore. Doctor and Mrs. Cole have a daughter, Jane, born in 1909.

ALEXANDER JACKSON FLETCHER was an ambitious young man of twenty-four years when he came to Clarksburg, judicial center and metropolis of Harrison County, and, with a capital of little more than $100, engaged in the general merchandise business, on a modest seale, as may naturally be inferred. He brought to bear energy, fair and honorable polieies and careful management, with the re- sult that his enterprise prospered from the start and he eventually developed one of the foremost mercantile estab- lishments in the city. He continued his active association with this line of business about twenty-nine years, and then sold out to turn his attention to the banking business, in which likewise he has made a record of admirable achievement. In 1903 he became associated with other representative eitizens in the organization and ineorpora- tion of the Farmers Bank of Clarksburg, of which he has since served continuously as president. Among others | rom- inently eoneerned in the founding of the new institution were Ira C. Posh (its first vice president), Hon. Harvey W. Harmer, Hon. J. E. Law, Dr. M. J. Bartlett, Dr. J. B. Smith and other eitizens of high standing. The bank bases its operations on a capital stock of $100,000, an idea of its unequivocal sueeess is afforded in the statement that in 1921 its resources are in excess of $1,500,000, and its de- posits nearly $2,000,000. In Clarksburg Mr. Fleteher has been a true apostle of civie and material progress, and he has here maintained seeure place as a representative busi- ness man for virtually thirty years. He is a staneh demo- crat, and while ever regardful of civie stewardship, he has had no desire for public office. He and his wife are active members of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

Alexander Jackson Fleteher was born at Farmington, Marion County, West Virginia, February 2, 1866, and is a son of Charles and Amelia (Baker) Fletcher, both of whom likewise were born and reared in that county, where the respective families were established in the pioneer days. Charles Fletcher, Sr., grandfather of the subject of this review, was a native of Pennsylvania, the original repre- sentatives of the family having come from England and settled in Virginia, in the colonial period of our national history. Charles Fletcher, Sr., was still a young man when he came to what is now West Virginia, settled in Marion County, and turned his attention to farm industry, with which he there continued his alliance during the remainder of his life. Charles Fletelier, Jr., learned the blacksmith trade and was successfully following the same in his native county at the time of his tragie death in a railroad accident, in 1869, when his son Alexander J. was but three years old. The widowed mother reared ber four children with earnest solieitude and continued her residence at Farmington until the elose of her gentle and gracious life. Her father, Jacob Baker, was a native of Pennsylvania, of German ancestry, became a pioneer settler in Marion Connty, West Virginia, and lived to the patriarchal age of 106 years. He whose name initiates this review is the youngest of the four children. His two brothers, Dorsey W. and Michael A., still reside in Marion County; and the only sister, Catherine, is deceased.

Alexander J. Fletcher obtained in his youth a good common-school education and initiated his business eareer as clerk in a general store in his home town. For seven years he was in the employ of a leading mercantile firm at Fairmont, county seat of Marion County, and it was after severing this association that, at the age of twenty-four years, in 1890, he initiated his independent mercantile en- terprise at Clarksburg, as noted in a preceding paragraph.

In 1886 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Fleteher to Miss Mollie A. Bowers, who was born in the State of Pennsylvania, and they have four children: Nellie C. (Mrs. G. K. Allman), Mabel C. (Mrs. Frank Graham), Ray Jackson, and Ward Bowers. The two sons are now cou- dueting a prosperous business at Clarksburg, under the

firm name of the Fletcher Automobile Company. Bo were in the nation's military service in the World w period, Ray J., having soon received an honorable d charge, on account of physical disability, and Ward having become an instructor in the aviation departmen All four of the children received the advantages of the W Virginia Wesleyan College.

REV. PATRICK H. MCDERMOTT, S. T. L., the honor pastor of the Catholic parish of the Church of the Immac late Conception in the City of Clarksburg, Harrison Count was born in Wheeling, this state, January 31, 1863, and a son of Michael and Catherine McDermott, both nativ of Ireland and both devout communicants of the Catho Church.

Father Patrick H. MeDermott received his academic literary education at St. Charles College, Maryland, a completed his ecclesiastical course at the Theologi Propaganda University, Rome, Italy, from which gre institution of the "Eternal City" he received his degr of S. T. L. He was ordained to the priesthood of the gre mother church of Christendom on the 30th of Octob 1892, at Rome, and after his return to the United Stat he gave three years of effective service as chancellor St. Joseph's Cathedral in his native city of Wheeling. : was then assigned a pastoral charge at Wytheville, V ginia, where he remained three years. For nearly thirte years thereafter he was pastor of a church at Rowleshu: West Virginia, and on the 1st of February, 1912, he (; tered upon his earnest service in his present pastora that of the important parish of the Church of the Imma late Conception, at Clarksburg. Here he has labored w all of consecrated zeal and devotion, and under his regi both the spiritual and temporal affairs of the parish ha been signally advaneed and prospered. The services of t Catholic Church at Clarksburg were maintained under m sion auspices until 1864, when the present parish was orga ized by Rt. Rev. Monsignor Daniel O'Conner, who beca the first pastor and who continued as the revered spiriti and executive head of the parish until his death, in 19 Father O'Conner was a native of Maryland and was a m of fine intellectual and administrative powers. Under vigorous and earnest administration the parish grew a prospered for nearly forty years, and he was influent also in general community affairs. Under his directi were erected the first church edifice, the first priest's hou the first sehool building of the parish, as well as otl buildings required to meet the needs of the growing chu organization. The original ehureh was a brick structu ereeted in 1865, and it served as the parish house of w ship until 1921, when the ancient building was razed, order that the site might be utilized for the new a modern chureh edifiee which is here to be erceted une the direet supervision of the present pastor, Father I Dermott. The parochial school was opened in 1865 a the educational work of the church has kept pace with i growth and progress of the community. In the two scho now maintained by the parish the enrollment of pur numbers almost 450 at the time of this writing, in 1 winter of 1921-2. One sehool, known as St. Joseph's Act emy, is under the direction of the Sisters of St. Joseph, a. the other school is in charge of the Xaverian Brothers.

In the year following his assumption of this pasto charge Father MeDermott initiated the erection of 1 present St. Mary's High School Building, which was co pleted in 1914 and which, with its equipment, represe an expenditure of about $83,000. The present residence the Xaverian Brothers of the parish was completed at eost of about $14,475. The parish now has about 1,5 communicants.

The second pastor of the Church of the Immacul: Conception was Rev. John A. Reynolds, whose earnest se iee covered a period of about nine years and continued ur his death, January 16, 1912. His memory is revered in 1 community, which benefited greatly by his presence a loving labors. Father Reynolds was born at Baltimo; Maryland, and prior to coming to Clarksburg had been service as a priest at Wheeling, West Virginia.

R. L. Ramsay

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Father McDermott has mainfested a spirit of progres- geness not only in connection with the work of his parish b; also as a liberal and publie-spirited citizen of broad o.look and mature judgment. He has gained inviolable pce in the confidence and high regard of the people of Cirksburg and Harrison County.

ROBERT L. RAMSAY, who is engaged in the practice of his pfession at Wellsburg, judicial center of Brooke County, ba secure status as one of the representative members of t: bar of this part of his native state, and both in his in- c'idual practice and his official service as prosecuting at- t ney of Brooke County he has won noteworthy victories i connection with cases of maximum importance.

The association of the Ramsay family with what is now [; State of West Virginia began when the widowed pa- I nal grandmother of the subject of this review came with 1. children to New Cumberland, Hancock County, and Ined her brother, Peter G. Headley, who there opened the fit coal mines of that district, about 1840. Mr. Ileadley is a native of Scotland, a man of marked ability and itiative energy, and he was long one of the leading eiti- sis of llaneoek County, where he died in 1892, at the age « seventy- four years. Ile was a delegate to the first repub- Jan convention held in Virginia, that of 1556, and he eon- hued a stalwart supporter of the party cause during the I nainder of his life, while he was influential in its eoun- is after the State of West Virginia had been created. In de early days he shipped coal down the rivers by barge, id he became the owner of a large part of the land now umprised in the City of New Cumberland. Ilis sister Isabel came the wife of Robert Ramsay, who died in Scotland, d it was after this bereavement that she came to America d joined her brother at New Cumberland, where she ssed the remainder of her life. Her two sons were John id William, the latter being now a resident of Guernsey sunty, Ohio.

John Ramsay was born in Scotland, in 1856, and he was out twenty years of age whea, with his young wife, he companied his widowed mother to the United States. In e present Hancock County, West Virginia, he became man- ger and superintendent of his unele's coal mines, and he now successfully operating a mine at near Hollidays Cove, at county, his home being in that vigorous little industrial ty. The maiden name of his wife was Elizabeth Lumsdou, id they have two sons and four daughters, Robert L., of is review, being eldest of the number; Anna is the wife : Samuel Smith, of Hollidays Cove; Isabel is the wife : William Breen, of that place; John likewise resides at ollidays Cove; Edith remains at the parental home; and thel is the wife of Floyd Tarr, of Hollidays Cove.

Robert L. Ramsay was born at New Cumberland, Han- ck County, March 24, 1877, and his early education was tained in the public schools of his native county. In 1901 e was graduated in the law department of the University f West Virginia, and for four years thereafter he was ssociated in practice with the late Senator J. R. Donahue t New Cumberland. Since 1906 he has been actively en- aged in practice at Wellsburg. In 1908 he was elected roseeuting attorney of Brooke County, and in 1912, as a emoerat, he was defeated for election to the office of state nator from his district. His defeat was compassed by only 56 votes in the distriet. Though he lost Ohio County, he arried every precinet in Haneoek County, which gave a epublican majority of 800. In 1916 Mr. Ramsay was re- lected prosecuting attorney of Brooke County, and .his orceful and notable administration in this office terminated 1 1921. As prosecutor during this period he handled many nportant eases, including the celebrated Galeheek murder ase, one of the most notable ever tried in the West Virginia ourts. Galeheek, a merchant of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, ad become infatuated with Mary Ondriek, a versatile young dventuress, by whom he was lured to Follansbee, Brooke 'ounty, and, in accordance with the well laid plot of the roman and her accomplices, the victim was finally taken rom the automobile in which he was being transported, vas handeuffed and thrown off the Steubenville bridge, to seet his death by drowning. In the prosecution that fol-

lowed this dastardly crime Hobert, or "Pittsburgh, " Grimm was condemned and executed and three accompliees were given life sentences, including the Ondrich woman, who had previously made a confession. The ense was remark- nble in the effective gathering of the circunstantial evidence that unraveled the nefarious plot, with difficulties nt every turn, and finally bringing the guilty parties to justice. The work which Mr. Ramsay did in connection with this cause celebrè did much to broaden his reputation and to give him state wide fame as a resourceful criminal lawyer nnd prosecutor.

Mr. Ramsay has been influential in the eouneil and enm- paign activities of the democratic party, has repeatedly been a delegate to its state conventions in West Virginia, and as a campaign speaker has frequently euvered the First Senatorial Distriet of the state. He is affiliated with the Wheeling Lodge of Elks and with the Kiwanis Club at Wells burg.

Mr. Ramsay married Miss Edna Brindley, daughter of Jefferson Brindley, and the two children of this union are Robert and Charlotte.

JOHN PATRICK MCGUIRE, M. D., who controls, in the City of Clarksburg, Harrison County, a professional prac- tiee that indicates alike his ability and personal hold upon popular confidence and esteem, claims the old Keystone State of the Union as the place of his nativity, his birth having occurred at Altoona, Pennsylvania, November 13, 1873. Ile is a son of John and Mary (O'Reilly) MeGuire, both natives of Ireland, where the former was born in 1834 and the latter in 1849, she having been a young woman when she severed tho home ties and immigrated to the United States, to which country her brother Thomas had preceded her.

John MeGuire was born in County Fermanagh, Ireland, and was a lad of eleven years when, in 1945, his parents, Philip and Bridget (O'Reilly) MeGuire, came to America and established their residence in Blair County, Pennsyl- vania. Philip McGuire was born in 1798, in Ireland, and died at Altoona, Pennsylvania, in 1584. His mother was a daughter of an English army officer, General Hamilton, who had been a member of Cromwell's forces, and thus Doctor McGuire of this review ean elaim both Irish and English ancestry. John McGuire was reared to manhood in l'enn- sylvania and he gave a number of years' service as a loco- motive engineer, being killed in an accident while on duty in this capacity, the 24th of April, 1880. Of his family of seven sons and one daughter, three of the sons died in infaney. Dr. Thomas J., eldest of the surviving children, is a representative physician and surgeon in the City of Parkersburg, West Virginia; Rev. Philip P. is pastor of St. Vincent Catholic Church in the City of Baltimore, and with him his venerable mother is making her home at the time of this writing, in the spring of 1922; Dr. John P., im- mediate subject of this sketch, was the next in order of birth; Dr. William C., likewise a physician and surgeon, is engaged in successful practice at Iluntington, this state; and Mary P. (Mrs. Krugh) resides in the City of Pitts- burgh, Pennsylvania.

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History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 2, Part 103

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