History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 2, Part 120

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Jonathan Chorpennning spent his life at the old home stead. His son Millard Fillmore Chorpenning was born the year after the family came to Preston County and lik his father before him, he acquired a liberal education and used it to the advantage of agriculture and his community February 2, 1885, be married Nancy J. Waddell. Thei children were Alonzo J., Charles W., Walter Elmo, Lloyd S., Homer O., Henry Ward, Creed Mckinley and Lucy A.

Walter Elmo Chorpenning was born at Brandonville

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iz 1888, moved to the old Homestead in 1895 and grew a' there in a home where education was prized for its nie in the training of good citizens. After finishing his M cation he took up electrical work, and is in the electrical biness at Connellsville, Pennsylvania, where he has had home since 1906. He married Miss Janet Stone.

ALLEN FORMAN. The activities and service by which he a become so well knowa and esteemed in the Amboy mhmunity of Preston County have been extended over the arly half a century Allen Forman has lived there. He passed the age of three score and ten, but is still mending to his interests as a farmer and lumberman. dr. Forman, who is widely known over Preston County o' account of his long service on the County Court, was bn near Brandonville May 30, 1845. His grandfather, quel Forman, came to Preston County, Pennsylvania, ai settled in the woods at Brandonville, transforming by b labors an unproductive traet into a fruitful farm. He m3 a member of the Quaker Church and was probably bied in the Quaker Cemetery at Brandonville. By his arriage to Miss Willett he had the following children : J'se, Ellis, James, Abner, Richard, Hannah, who married J'in Spurgeon, Anna, who married Alexander Harvey, and Iborah, who married James Harvey, brother of Alexander. I'was perhaps due to their Quaker connections that none o these sons became soldiers in the Civil war.

Richard Forman, father of Allen Forman, was born in Brandonville community and though reared a Quaker L'united with the Methodist denomination after his marri- p2. He had only the advantages of the country schools, at his active years were spent in farming. He died in 1)2, at the age of seventy-three. He was a democrat, bough he voted for Abraham Lincoln in 1860. About 175 he moved to the Amboy locality, and is buried at (rmel Church, near there. His wife, Nancy Fike, was a rughter of Jacob Fike, and she reached the age of eighty- Their children were: Allen; Elma, who married Iv. Henry J. Boatman and died in California; James, of rra Alta; Lewis J., a lawyer at Petersburg, West Vir- hia; and Lloyd, proprietor of the Forman Surgical bspital at Buekhannon.

Allen Forman attended the common schools, the Bran- inville Academy, and his labors were given to the home frm until after his marriage. In 1875 he located on the rm he now owns and occupies at Amboy. He arrived ere with $500 which his father had paid him in wages, d he used this capital in making his first payment on e land, and finished paying for his farm on the install- ent plan. Fifty acres have been cleared, and since he ok possession a similar area has been made ready for ops. On this farm he has grown both grain and stock, id for the past thirty years has also supplemented his isiness as a manufacturer of lumber on a small scale. and his sons now operate their mill in partnership, d their product made from local timber supply is largely ed by the local trade, though to some extent shipments ve been made outside the county.

Mr. Foreman became a member of the County Court as ccessor of Julius Seheer, representing Union District. mong other colleagues during his long service there were shu Jenkins and A. Staley Shaw. He served four straight rms of two years each, and then, after an intermission, as again elected, and had ten years of service to his edit when he retired. The principal work during his rm was building roads and bridges, and providing for e poor, but the county had not entered upon the pro- ·am of permanent highway construction until the last rm he was on the board. Mr. Forman cast his first esidential ballot for General Grant in 1888, and has been igned with that party ever since. In former years he is frequently a delegate to county, senatorial and con- ·essional conventions. He has served as a trustee of the urora Methodist Church. Mr. Forman has practically all s business interests concentrated on his farm and in his mber mill, but is also one of the stockholders and a rector of the First National Bank of Terra Alta. In Preston County May 30, 1873, he married Miss Carrie

Forquer. She was born at Brandonville January 22, 1848, daughter of Samuel and Isabel (McGrew) Forquer. Her mother was a daughter of Colonel James MeGrew, repre- senting one of the pioneer families of this section of the state. The original MeGrew came from New Jersey to Cumberland, Maryland, in pioneer times. Samuel Forquer and wife had four children: Leroy, who served as a Union soldier and is now living in Pennsylvania; Mattie, who married Harry Smith and lives at Morgantown; Mrs. Forman; and Dayton M., a farmer near Brandonville.

Of the children of Mr. and Mrs. Forman the oldest is Alletta, of Terra Alta, widow of John C. Mayer; Charles H., the oldest son, is associated with his father in the lumber industry at Amboy; Arthur Dayton, a farmer near Amboy, married Myrtle Mason, and their children are Eleanor, Erma and Naney; Miss Mary is still at home with her parents. The two youngest children were Harry Allen and Nancy, twins. The son died on his graduation day, at the age of twenty-one. Nancy is the deceased wife of E. R. Jones, of Oakland, Maryland.

HON. LEWIS J. FORMAN. Recognized generally as one of the leading attorneys of Grant County, Lewis J. Forman, of Petersburg, is also a descendant of the old and prominent family of Formans which settled in Preston County more than a century and a half ago, He was born on the old family farm near Bruceton Mills, January 7, 1855, and is a son of Richard and Nancy (Fike) Forman, and a brother of Allen Forman, of Preston County, a sketch of whose career precedes this.

Lewis J. Forman lived in the vicinity of Brandonville during the first seventeen years of his life, and in 1872 accompanied his parents to Amboy, near Aurora, where he came to man's estate. He attended the country schools until he was eighteen years of age, at which time he com- meneed teaching school in Preston County, although he had endeavored to enter this profession one year sooner in Maryland, but the authorities there had refused to examine lim for a license to teach because of his youth. He con- tinued teaching school in Preston, Doddridge and Wirt eoun- ties, West Virginia, for six years, following which he entered Professor Holbrook's National Normal University, from which he was duly graduated after four years in both the scientific and business or commercial courses. Ife resumed teaching at that time, first being principal of schools at Fairmont and subsequently at Beavertown, Ohio, and then returned to West Virginia and settled permanently at Petersburg.

Upon assuming his residence at the county seat of Grant County Mr. Forman began the study of law with the firm of Dyer & Pugh. Such phenomenally rapid advancement did he make that he was admitted to the bar of West Vir- ginia eight months later. During this period he went into the country, near town, and taught a short term of school, and in addition to this labor served for a while as a deputy in the county elerk's office, which would make it appear that his time was fully occupied. After his admission to the bar Mr. Forman hegan the practice of his profession at Peters- burg, where he tried his first case in the court. His admis- sion to practice occurred in October, 1883, and in the fol- lowing year he was elected prosecuting attorney of the county, an office to which he was re-elected for four con- secutive terms, serving sixteen years therein. In this office lie succeeded the Hon. F. M. Reynolds, who later occupied the bench of this judicial distriet. In this time Mr. Forman also acted as principal of the Petersburg school for more than two terms, and was also associated as a partner in tlie law with Judge F. M. Reynolds until the latter was ele- rated to the bench. He retired from the office of prose- cuting attorney in 1900, and since then has applied himself to his private practice, which has advanced greatly in size and importance.

In the matter of politics Mr. Forman grew up in a home where republicanism was strong, and east his maiden presi- dential vote for Rutherford B. Hayes. Ile has east eleven ballots for presidents, never having missed a national elec- tion since casting his initial vote. His convention work as a delegate shows him to have been present at nearly all of

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the republican state conventions for thirty years. He was formerly a member of the Republican State Committee, and helped engineer the first primary election as a member of the executive committee appointed for that purpose. He was likewise a member of the Congressional Committee for many years, during the incumbency of Judge Dayton in Congress, and was a delegate to the National Republican Committee convention of 1900, assisting in the nomination of President Mckinley.

Mr. Forman's first clection to office was when he was made prosecuting attorney. He made the race as the re- publican candidate for state senator in 1900, but political conditions were against him and he was defeated, but by only eighty-one votes. Two years later he was again a candidate, in a new senatorial district, and this time won by 3,500 votes. He represented the Fifteenth Senatorial Distriet for eight years, going into the Senate under the presidency of Hon. Clark May, and when his term expired he was re-elected to succeed himself. During this last term he was a member of the judiciary committee of the body, and held this post all through his service save for the last year, when he was elected president of the Sen- ate. He was instrumental as a legislator this term in se- curing the passage of a bill establishing the bureau of ar- chives and history, and in addition to introducing and put- ting through the bill placing county officers on salary, joined in the tax reform legislation which resulted in the passage of the hill which governs today. He has since been a candidate for Congress before the primaries, but lost the nomination.

Senator Formau as a citizen and business man of Pet- ersburg served the town as its mayor five years, and dur- ing his administration the municipality was cleared of in- debtedness. He was one of the organizers of the Grant County Bank, at which time he was elected president, and is still its chief executive. As a churchman he began his church life as a boy of thirteen years. His parents were Methodists, and he has been a factor in the work of that denomination in each community in which he has resided. He was elected superintendent of the Sunday School of the Methodist Episcopal Church at Petersburg at the time he joined the congregation, and has served the school since 1902. He has the record of fourteen years of attendance upon the school without missing a Sunday, and the school records show others who have an equally remarkable record of attendance. He has been a member of the State Sunday School Executive Committee and is especially interested and concerned with Sunday School work. He is one of the Board of Stewards of the church, and has occasionally at- tended annual church conferences of the district.

On August 23, 1886, at Petersburg, Senator Forman mar- ried Miss Virginia Baker, a daughter of Eli and Frances (Shobe) Baker. Mr. Baker was of an old family of West Virginia and was a hatter by trade and an agriculturist hy occupation. Mrs. Baker was a native of Grant County, and Mrs. Forman is oue of eight children to reach maturity. She was educated in the common schools, and had an ex- perience of one year as a teacher. She is an active mem- ber of the Presbyterian Church, and gave her support to the movement to promote the auxiliary work of the World war. Senator and Mrs. Forman have had no children to grow up. A little girl, Esther Whisler, came into their home by adoption and grew up and was educated as their own child. She passed through the schools of Petersburg, graduated from Randolph Macon Institute at Danville, Vir- ginia, and then took a year's work at Wesleyan College, Buckhannon, coming to womanhood with every preparation for a useful and happy life. She married Bryan F. Mitch- ell, of Danville, Virginia, and their home is at Petersburg, where Mr. Mitchell is reading law under the preceptorship of Senator Forman.

LACO LOY YOUNG, sheriff of Harrison County, is a brother to the secretary of state of West Virginia, and both have been men of power in county politics and local affairs for a great many years.

Sheriff Young was born on a farm in Barbour County, West Virginia, December 7, 1869, son of David Sylvester

and Sarah Ann (Pickens) Young. His father, a nati of Old Virginia, was a child when his parents, William 1 and Hettie (Griffith) Young, moved to Harrison Count West Virginia, where they lived out their lives. Th were Scotch Presbyterians. William W. Young hecame farmer, also learned the blacksmith's trade, and was o of the pioneers of that occupation in Harrison Count The mother of Sheriff Young was born in West Virgin daughter of John and Hannah (Corder) Pickens, who car from Old Virginia. She died at the age of fifty-five, lea ing four children: Laco L .; Addie V., deceased; Edna wife of A. G. Whitesell, of Weston; and Houston Go who is uow in his second term as secretary of state West Virginia and is still a resident of Harrison Count The father of these children is still living on the old hom stead not far from where the grandfather settled in Har son County. David S. Young was a teamster in the Uni Army during the Civil war.

Laco L. Young grew up on the homestead in Harris County, made good use of his advantages in the rur schools, and finally attended the Holbrook Normal Schc at Lebanon, Ohio, now the National Normal Universit When only sixteen he was given his first school to teac and for six years he played an effective part in the edue tional program of his community. His chief occupati throughout his career, however, has been farming, aud is one of the men who have achieved something more th: an ordinary success in agriculture. From the farm 1 interests have taken on a broadening scope and he interested in the wholesale meat business at Clarksburg.

Mr. Young for a number of years has been active interested in the success of the republican party in Harı son County, but not until 1920 did he come forward as : active candidate for himself. In that year he won the I publican nomination for sheriff, and at the Novemb election received the largest vote given to any man on t county ticket. Sheriff Young is a Methodist and a mer ber of the Knights of Pythias.

Iu 1891 he married Miss Byrdie Stout, daughter of N and Mrs. Abner S. Stout, of Harrison County. To the marriage were born ten children: Their son Clayton Young is now deputy sheriff under his father, is an e service man, and for thirteen months was overseas wi the Third Army Division. He is an active member of t) American Legion Post of Clarksburg.

CARL H. EBERTS has been actively associated with t Bank of Warwood from the time of its inception, and now its efficient and popular cashier. Special intere attaches to his association with business interests at Wa wood, a village that is now a part of the City of Wheelin by reason of the fact the old family homestead farm w partially included in the site of the town at the time was founded. He was born on the site of Warwood, t present title of which was given when around the plant the Warwood Tool Company, established at this point, village began to develop, the same later being made : integral part of Wheeling. Here Mr. Eberts was bo December 18, 1888, a son of George S. and Mary (Weiskı! Eberts, the latter of whom likewise was born in the Wa wood locality, her father, Herman Weiske, having he died when she was a child.

George S. Eberts was a child when his parents, Jac and Caroline Eberts, established their home on a far a part of which is now included in Warwood, and on th old homestead the parents passed the remainder of the lives, the farm eventually passing into the possession . George S., who later became prominent in securing t! right of way for the street railway through this secti and who finally sold the farm to the Loveland Investme. Company, in which he became a director. In this co. nection he aided in the platting of his former farm (sevent two acres) into town lots, and he became one of the vit and progressive men of the new town. He was one of ti organizers and incorporators of the Bank of Warwor in 1911, and continued a director of the same until b death, July 20, 1921. Mr. Eberts was a stockholder Wheeling Wall Plaster Company and had active manag

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pnt of its manufacturing plant at Warwood. In 1918 he Jeame manager of the Glenova Coal Company, with which continued thus connected until his death. Under his ection the mines of the company were opened, and the terprise has been one of importance in connection with industrial advancement of Warwood. The Glenova Tal Company has sixty acres of coal land, and the output « the mines is sold to local factories and homes. The operty and business are controlled by the family of Mr. berts. Mr. Eberts served twenty-five years as a member « the School Board of his distriet, which comprised all the Richland District and ineluded Warwood, where s established the district high school. He was a stanch imocrat, and was an earnest communicant of the Luth- un Church, as is also his widow. The family own also t mining enterprises conducted under the title of the (esapeake Coal Company, at Bellaire, Ohio, and the Val- 1 Grove Coal Company, likewise at Bellaire, of which (rl H., of this sketch, is vice-president and treasurer, T. H. .hnson, of Bellaire, being the president. Three children s-vive the honored father, and of the number Carl H. ithe eldest; George J. is secretary of the John S. Naylor (mpany of Wheeling; and Harry W. is secretary of the Cesapenke Conl Company at Bellaire, Ohio.

Carl H. Eberts gained his early education in the public Fools, and in his eighteenth year he took a minor posi- tn in the Quarter Savings Bank at Wheeling, in which I served two months without compensation and in which eventually won promotion to the position of teller. In Il he became the netive promoter of the Bank of War- kod, which was incorporated with a capital of $25,000, F stock being held by citizens of the immediate com- rinity. The bank opened its doors May 1, 1911, and Mr. berts has been its eashier from the beginning, the while I careful and progressive executive policies and his per- Elal popularity have inured greatly to the success of the E'erprise. The present bank building, of modern archi- tture and equipment, was completed and occupied in Jan- try, 1914, a two-story briek structure, with the banking c ces, and with a second room that is used for mercantile [rposes. W. E. Helfenbine, the first president of the Ink, was succeeded in 1913 by the present ineumbent, F. Kenamond, and J. H. MeDonald is the vice president. de bank has a safe-deposit department and is an institu- tn that plays a large part in the general business life c the community. It now has surplus and undivided prof- i of $25,000, it has paid regular six per cent dividends, Gì its deposits average about $500,000.

Mr. Eherts takes vital interest in all that concerns the slfare of his home community, and he and his wife are ulous and influential communieants of the Lutheran lureh at Warwood, he being chairman of its Board of lustees and vice president of its council. He was a dele- te to the Synodieal Conference of the church at Fair- tnt, in 1921, and in the preceding year was a delegate the United Lutheran Conference held in the City of fishington, D. C. He has completed the cirele of both 'rk and Seottish Rite Masonry, in the latter of which t has received the thirty-second degree, besides being af- fated with the Mystic Shrine and the Order of the East- Star, of which latter his wife likewise is a member. Ps. Eberts, whose maiden name was Emma Johnson, is laughter of T. H. Johnson, Bellaire, Ohio, who has been sively engaged in coal operations for more than forty Firs. Mr. and Mrs. Eberts have one son, Herman Carl.

CLARENCE BURDETTE SPERRY. The firm of Sperry & perry, lawyers, has for many years enjoyed an enviable mutation in the Harrison County bar, a county that has en some of the most distinctive abilities to the pro- Esional affairs of the state. The members of this firm Melvin G. and Clarence Burdette Sperry, brothers, tives of West Virginia.

Their father was the late Rev. Ezra Cortland Sperry, o was born in Cortland, New York, in 1827. The orgies of his life were divided between his duties as a ptist minister and as a farmer. He removed to Harrison

County in 1851, and died January 9, 1908. Ilis wife was Mary M. Patton, who was born and reared in Harrison County. They became the parents of a large family, those growing to maturity being Edgar A., Mary C., Alexander L., Leonora, Rulina, Melvin G., Ezra C., Clarenee B., Ernest V., Earl M., Ida L. and Perey C.

Clarence Burdette Sperry was born on his father's farm in Doddridge County, West Virginia, October 10, 1869. The country was his environment during his youth, and he finished a publie school education and for three terms taught school. He spent two years in the law school of the University of West Virginia at Morgantown, was ad- mitted to the bar, and in 1900 became associated with his brother Melvin G. Sperry in the firm of Sperry & Sperry at Clarksburg. Mr. Sperry has also been interested in gas and other industrial development in his section of the state.

lle is a democrat in politics, is affiliated with the In- dependent Order of Odd Fellows and Elks and is a mem- ber of the Baptist Church. At Clarksburg April 16, 1908, he married Margaret O. MeKinley, who was born in Harri- son County in 1885, daughter of William P. MeKinley. Her father was a Union soldier in the Civil war and a native of Harrison County. Mr. and Mrs. Sperry have one daughter, Margaret Eleanor, born March 3, 1909.

JAMES EDWARD LAW. The educated, reputable lawyer is invariably ranked with the worth-while citizens of a community, and this is true at Clarksburg, West Virginia, as in other cities. An able representative of this pro- fession here is James Edward Law, formerly prosecuting attorney, who belongs by birth and parentage to Harri- son County.

James E. Law was born near Salem, Harrison County, West Virginia, April 27, 1872, a son of Jesse Daugherty and Naney ( Hooper) Law, and a grandson of William Law and Nicholas Hooper, the paternal grandfather being a native of Ireland, of Scotch-Irish lineage, and the latter of Harrison County. Jesse Daugherty Law served as a soldier in the Union Army during the war between the states, and afterward followed the peaceful life of a farmer and stockman. Ilis death oceurred when sixty-eight years of age, his widow surviving to be seventy-two years of age. They reared a family of two daughters and five sons. Mr. and Mrs. Law were highly esteemed in their neighborhood and were faithful members of the Methodist Protestant Church.

James E. Law had educational privileges in the publie schools, then became a student in Salem College and later matrienlated in the West Virginia University, where he took both a classical and law course and was graduated in 1899 and admitted to the bar in the same year. He located immediately at Clarksburg, where he opened a law office and was elected prosecuting attorney of Harrison County, serving as such from 1901, to 1904. inclusive. In 1918 he formed a law partneship with Anthony F. MeCue, under the firm name of Law and McCue.

He helped to organize the Farmers Bank at Clarksburg in 1904, and has since been one of its direetors. He has been equally useful in other public capacities, and served as county superintendent of schools from 1895 to 1899, with the greatest efficieney. Ile had taught school in his younger years, and thus had a personal understanding of the educational problems facing teachers and boards of edu- cation.

In 190] Mr. Law was united in marriage with Miss Edna Hustead, who was born and reared in Harrison County. They have two children, a son and daughter, James Edward and Carolyn Waldo. Mr. Law and his family belong to the Methodist Episcopal Church. Like all broad-minded, intelligent men, Mr. Law takes a deep interest in public affairs and to some extent in the local politieal field. As was his father, he is a sturdy supporter of the principles of the republican party. Fraternally he is an Odd Fellow, and on many occasions, as a foremost citizen, is called on to serve, officially or otherwise, on boards and committees concerned with the public welfare.

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History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 2, Part 120

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