History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 2, Part 128

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Mr. Lawson began teaching school when twenty-one years old, and has taught almost continuously every since, except when attending college or filling public office, during this time being a student in the West Virginia Wesleyan College and in the West Virginia State University. From choice he has devoted his time and efforts to Harrison County alone, teaching four years in the rural schools; serving three years as principal of the North View ward school at Clarksburg, and for three years being distriet supervisor of the coal district schools. In 1915 Mr. Lawson was elected county superintendent of schools in Harrisen County for four years, and completed his term in 1919, but early in 1920 he was appointed to fill the office of the Jate superintendent L. W. Ogdea until election in the fall of 1920, and later in the same year was again elected super- intendent of schools fer another four years, but resigned January 1, 1922, to engage in the life insurance business. Mr. Lawson's intelligent, broad-minded ideas, sound, practical methods and pleasant personality made him a popular and successful teacher, and the same qualities were equally effective as superintendent and his administra tion of the schools was efficient and satisfactory.

Mr. Lawson married in 1916 Miss Beulah Elizabeth Garner, of Marion County, West Virginia, and they have one daughter, Florence Louise. Mr. and Mrs. Lawson are members of the Christian Church. In his political views he is a republican. and fraternally is identified with the Elks and the Knights of Pythias, and also is a member of the West Virginia State and the National Teachers' Asso ciations. During vacations and in leisure hours he did seme life insurance business, and now represents one of the old line companies.

CLAIR NELSON PARRISH, the efficient and popular clerk of the County Court of Harrison County, was born on a farm in this county June 13, 1893, and is a son of Thomas J. and Mary (Morgan) Parrish. His father was likewise born and reared in this county, a representative of an old and honored family of this section of the state, and Mrs. Mary (Morgan) Parrish was born in Doddridge County, her death having occurred more than twenty years ago. Thomas J. Parrish was formerly one of the representative farmers of Harrison County, but for a period of about twenty years he has maintained his residence in the City of Clarksburg. the county seat, and heen actively identified with coal, oil and gas productive industry, in this section of the state.

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He is serving as a member of the City Council at the time of this writing, in 1921.

Clair N. Parrish continued his studies in the public schools of Clarksburg until his graduation in the high school, and thereafter he served four years as deputy sheriff of the county. In 1920 he was elected clerk of the County Court, and in this office be is giving characteristically ef- fective service. He entered the United States Navy when the nation became involved in the World war, served in the gunning department, and is now a member of the American Legion. He is athiliated also with the lodge of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks in his home mity of Clarksburg. His political allegiance is given to the republican party, and he and his wife hold membership in the Episcopal Church. His marriage to Miss Agnes Morgan, of Clarksburg, was solemnized in the year 1918.

GEORGE HENRY DUTHIE bas been engaged in the practice of law in the City of Clarksburg, judicial center of Harrison County, since 1912, and has gained secure status as one of the representative members of the bar of this county. Prior to entering professional life he had won for himself marked success and prestige in the industrial and commercial field, and he has in the most significant sense been the architect of his own fortunes.

Mr. Duthie is a scion of sterling Scotch ancestry and was born on a farm near Lexington, Sanilac County, Michi- gan, August 21, 1859. He is a son of William and Eliza- beth (Forbes) Duthie, who were born and reared in Aber- deen, Scotland, where their marriage was solemnized and whence they soon afterward came to the United States, all of their children, seven in number, having been born in this country. The father was a skilled machinist, and he first worked at his trade after arriving in this country at Pater- son, New Jersey. Later he continued in the work of his trade at Detroit, Michigan, until impaired health led to his establishing the family home on a farm near Lexing- ton, that state, where his family remained during intervals in which he again followed his trade in Detroit. On this farm his wife died in her forty-ninth year, and he passed the closing period of his life in the home of his son George H., of this review, in Tennessee, where he died at a vener- able age.

George H. Duthie passed the period of his childhood and early youth on the farm which was the place of his birth, and in the meanwhile attended the public schools of the locality. At Lexington, Michigan, he learned the ma- chinist's trade, and at the age of seventeen years he initi- ated his independent career as one of the world's workers. As a journeyman machinist he worked at various places in the United States and Canada, and incidentally served as foreman of a number of high-grade machine shops. In the spring of 1887 he removed to Knoxville, Tennessee, and opened a machine shop, but in 1890 he removed his busi- ness to Harriman, that state, where he organized and estab- lished the Duthie Foundry Company, with which he con- tinued his alliance, as its executive head, until the business and plant were sold in 1904. In the meantime he had given considerable attention to the study of law, for the purpose of better equipping bimself for business. While still managing the business of the Duthie Foundry Com- pany he completed the prescribed two years' course in the law department of the American Temperance University at Harriman, and in the autumn of 1899 be was admitted to the bar, upon examination before the Supreme Court of Tennessee. In 1901 he opened a law office at Harriman, where he continued in practice four years, besides re- taining management of the foundry business until he sold his interest therein in 1904. In that year he took advan- tage of a splendid business opportunity and became a com- mercial traveling salesman. He was thus engaged about seven years, and in the autumn of 1912 he established his residenee at Clarksburg, West Virginia, where he has since been actively and successfully engaged in the general prac- tice of law, with offices in the Union Bank Building. He enjoys a general practice in West Virginia and the adjoin- ing states and in the Federal Court, and he has become specially well known as a patent attorney, his skill and

long experience as a mechanic giving him exceptiona potency in this field.

Mr. Duthie was reared in the political faith of the re publican party, but has been an independent voter fo many years. He espoused the cause of the prohibition party, and while he has not subscribed fully to the doctrine of the socialist party he believes that a co-operative com monwealth represents the next forward step in civiliza tion. He has been a member of the Methodist Episcopa Church since he was seventeen years of age, and is nov an official of the church of this denomination at Clarks burg. Ile is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity as Master Mason.

In 1896 Mr. Duthie wedded Miss Flora Guthrie, whi was at the time serving as principal in the public school: of the City of Muskegon, Michigan. They have three chil dren: Miss Grace I. is a popular teacher in the public schools of Clarksburg; James H. is architect for the Board of Education of Cleveland, Ohio; and Robert W. is ir commercial business at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Both of the sons served as captains in the United States Army in the World war period, James H. having passed fourtcer. months on the stage of conflict overseas, and Robert W having given twenty-one months of service, largely per- sonnel work, in camp life in the United States.

HARRY T. CLOUSE, the present sheriff of Ohio County, at Wheeling, has come to the dignity and responsibilities of this important office through the efficiency he displayed by several years of public work in the court house, by his splendid good citizenship, and as a result of the effective part members of the Clouse family have taken in the life and affairs of Wheeling for half a century.

Sheriff Clouse was born at Wheeling, May 15, 1892. His grandfather, Henry Clouse, was born near Stuttgart, Ger- many, in 1824, and brought his family to the United States about 1871, locating at Wheeling, where he continued to follow his trade as a brick mason. He died at Wheeling in 1894. His son, Charles Clouse, was born near Stuttgart in 1859, and was twelve years of age when brought to Wheeling, where he completed his education. As a young man he was employed as a puddler in the local steel mills. In 1896 he joined the Wheeling Fire Department, and at the end of a quarter of a century of efficient service he is now captain of Aerial Truck Company No. 1. Captain Clouse is a republican. He married Frances Weaver, who was born in Mason County, West Virginia, in 1862. They are the parents of four children: Stella, wife of John Kunz, a cigar maker at Wheeling; Charles, Jr., a steam fitter at Wheeling; Harry Theodore; and Gertrude, a stu- dent in the Wheeling High School.

Harry Theodore Clouse grew up in the City of Wheel- ing, attended the public schools, including high school, and in 1908 graduated from the Elliott Commercial School. During 1908-09 he attended the historie Linsly Institute, and left that to hegin his serious career. For a short time he was in the service of the Baltimore & Ohio Railway Company, and for three years worked in the steel mills of the Wheeling Steel & Iron Corporation. Mr. Clouse also had some newspaper experience, acting as reporter for the Wheeling News and Wheeling Intelligencer for a year. In the fall of 1913 he was appointed deputy Circuit Court clerk of Ohio County, and since that date his duties have been at the court house. In November, 1920, he was elected sheriff, and began his official term of four years January 1, 1921.

Sheriff Clouse has a military record, having enlisted in May, 1917, soon after America entered the war. He at- tended the Officers Training Camp at Fort Benjamin Har- rison, Indiana, was commissioned a first lieutenant in August, 1917, was then transferred to Camp Zachary Taylor at Louisville, and finally was with the Forty-ninth U. S. Infantry at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. He received his honorable discharge in September, 1919.

Sheriff Clouse is a stockholder in the Fulton Bank & Trust Company. He is a republican, has served as a deacon of the Lutheran Church, and is prominent in Masonic

N. J. Clouse

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s, being a member of Nelson Lodge No. 30, A. F. and T., Wheeling Chapter No. I, R. A. M., Wheeling Com- slery No. 1, K. T., Osiris Temple of the Mystic Shrine Theeling, in which he has served as captain of the Arab) col; Wheeling Consistory of the Scottish Rite; and is a member of Royal Court No. 13, Royal Order of .rs, Black Prince Lodge No. 19, Knights of l'ythias, ling Lodge of Odd Fellows and Wheeling Lodge No. 3. P. O. E., of which he is a director.

1915, at Wheeling, Mr. Clouse married Miss Alma ax, daughter of Louis and Louise (Biery) Sax. ller for was n live-stoek commission broker and is now de- .d. Her mother is now Mrs. William Currence, of Jing. Mrs. Clouse finished her education by gradua- from Mount De Chantal Academy near Wheeling, te she enjoyed an exceptional training in music and skilled pianist. Sheriff and Mrs. Clouse have one hter. Alma June, born February 9, 1916. The home heriff Clouse is an attractive residence at 31 Avenue A, .dale, Wheeling.

SRBERT ELIAS SLOAN, M. D., president and superinten- of the Mason Hospital, Clarksburg, Harrison County, born in Washington county, Ohio, on the 17th of tary, 1576, a son of Doctor Elias and Sarah Elizabeth le) Sloan. When he was two years of age the family 'd to Williamstown, Wood County, West Virginia, e his father practiced medicine for seventeen years, at expiration of which time, in 1894, he returned to Ohio engaged in practice in the City of Marietta, where he ›d the remainder of his life.

.. Herbert E. Sloan acquired his preliminary education he public schools at Williamstown and in Marietta ge where he was graduated in 1895. He then entered Eclectic Medical College in the City of Cincinnati, Ohio, ( which he was graduated in 1898. For three years · graduation he practiced at Marietta, in association his father. In 1901 he located at Clarksburg, West inia, where he continued to practice until 1908, when eeepted a position as instructor in bis Alma Mater, the etic Medical College at Cincinnati. He then resumed practice at Clarksburg, where he has since maintained nome. He is a member of the Harrison County Medical ety, the West Virginia Medieal Society and the rican Medical Association. He is president of the on Hospital Company and has the active management his hospital. In his practice he has given special atten- to surgery.

polities the Doctor is an independent democrat. He is ated with the Scottish Rite bodies of the Masonic pernity, and he and his wife hold membership in the Itist Church. In 1921 be was elected a member of the Council of Clarksburg, and in 1919-20 he served as ember of the State Public Health Council of West Vir- 11. During the World war period Doctor Sloan was a ber of the Medieal Advisory Board of his distriet. In . he was united in marriage with Miss Luella Dye, of ), and they have seven children, Elizabeth, Eleanor, tha, Mary, Catherine, Herbert and Robert.

ENRY CLYDE ROBINSON. Though he won his present tion as county assessor by popular election, Henry e Robinson was thoroughly well qualified for his duties result of his eight years' work in the office of assessor leputy. Mr. Robinson is member of an old Harrison nty family, and is himself widely known all over the ty.

e was born on a farm near Shinnston June 4, 1882, be still maintains his own home there. His official quarters are in the Goff Building in Clarksburg. His dfather, David W. Robinson, was born in Harrison ity and at one time was high sheriff of the county and ident of the County Court when the present Court se was built in 1888. James Allison Robinson, father the county assessor, was born in Clarksburg August 18. i, and devoted his time and energies to his farm until since which year he has been in the feed business Shinnston. Like bis father before him and also his

son, he has given netive support to the republican party, and from early life he has been a member of the Methodist Church. James A. Robinson married Mary Jane Hawker, a native of llarrison County and daughter of James llawker. She died in 1886, the mother of seven children, namely: James David, deceased; Betty, Mrs. S. C. Me- Carty; Cecil E .; Carrie, wife of A. G. Sprout; William Amos; Henry C .; and Miss Nellie J., at home.

Henry Clyde Robinson spent his early life on his father's farm near Shinnston, attended the publie free schools, and finished his education in the West Virginia Wesleyan Col lege at Buckhannon and the Fairmont Normal School. One important source of his popular reputation throughout Harrison County is due to his long service as a teacher. He taught his first term in the rural schools at the age of sixteen, and for thirteen consecutive years the greater part of his time was devoted to teaching. After leaving the schoolroom he was associated with his father for one year in the feed tinsiness at Shinnston. Mr. Robinson be came a clerk in the county assessor's office in 1913, and during the next eight years his experience brought him a practical knowledge of everything connected with the as sessment of county real estate. In November, 1920, he was elected county assessor, and has been ably discharging his duties in that capacity since January, 1921. He was elected as a republican. Ile is a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason, member of the Mystic Shrine, is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and Knights of Pythias and is a member of the Methodist Protestant Church.

On October 15, 1904, Mr. Robinson married Miss Etsie May Hardesty, daughter of James L. and Amanda (Janes) IFardesty. Their three children are named Dennis Har- desty, Margaret Louise and Ruth Eleanor.

SAMUEL ROBERTSON HARRISON, JR., who was born at Clarksburg, Harrison County, on the 7th of June, 1890, is a member of the bar of his native county and is now serv ing as deputy clerk of the United States District Court, with official headquarters in the Post Office building in his native eity. He is a son of Samuel R. and Sallie ( Alexan- der) Harrison, and his early educational advantages in eluded those of the Clarksburg High School. For three years thereafter he was a student in the University of West Virginia, in which be completed his course in the law department and was graduated as a member of the class of 1914. His reception of the degree of Bachelor of Laws was virtually coincident with his admission to the bar, and he forthwith engaged in the practice of his pro fession at Clarksburg. In the autumn of 1916 he was elected to represent his native county in the Lower House of the State Legislature, in which he served one term. In March, 1917, Mr. Harrison was appointed deputy clerk of the United States District Court of the Northern Dis triet of West Virginia, and in this position he has since continued his efficient service. He is a republican, is affiliated with the Scottish Rite body of the Masonic fraternity, and his religious faitb is that of the Preshy- terian Church. He has substantial agricultural and stock- growing interests in Harrison County, and is a young man of civic loyalty and progressiveness.

October 10, 1917, recorded the marriage of Mr. Harri- son and Miss Blanche Maxwell, daughter of Perter andt Columbia (Post) Maxwell, and the one child of this union is a daughter, Emily Frances.

REV. WALTER AUSTIN SNOW, of Clarksburg, Harrison County, is not only a clergyman of the Congregational Church but is also doing splendid service in his executive office of general secretary of the West Virginia Sunday School Association.

Mr. Snow was born at Austinburg, Ashtabula County, Ohio, on the 13th of September, 1872, and on both the paternal and maternal sides he is a scion of influential and honored pioneer families of that county, the town of Austinburg having been named in honor of the family of which Mr. Snow's mother was a representative.

Rev. Walter A. Snow is a son of Albert H. and Cornelia

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Sargent (Austin) Snow, both likewise natives of Ashtabula County. The paternal grandparents, Sparrow and Clara (Kneeland) Snow, were born at Sandersfield, Massachu- setts, and the maternal grandparents, Lucius Montgomery Austin and Melissa (Whiting) Austin, were natives of Torrington, Connecticut. The grandparents on both sides were numbered among the early settlers at Austinburg, Ohio, which has the distinction of being the second oldest town in the Buckeye state. Through descent from the original representative of the Snow family in America the subject of this review is eligible and has become a mem- ber of the Mayflower Society; through the Whiting ances- try he holds membership in the Society of American Col- onial Wars; and his affiliation with the Society of the American Revolution is based on the patriotic military service rendered by ancestors of each the Snow, Austin, Whiting and Kneeland families.

Mr. Snow was reared on his father's farm to the age of eighteen years, and gained his preliminary education in the district schools of his native county. In 1894 he graduated from Grand River Institute at Austinburg, an institution of which his maternal grandfather was the first principal. In 1897 he received from the University of Ohio the degree of Bachelor of Philosophy, and in 1900 he graduated from the Chicago Theological Seminary, his or- dination as a clergyman of the Congregational Church hav- ing occurred in September of that year. For the ensuing five years he held a pastoral charge in the City of Miunea- polis, Minnesota, and during the greater part of this in- terval he was also secretary of the Minnesota Congrega- tional (Church) Club. After leaving Minneapolis Mr. Snow was for a short time associate pastor of the People's Congregational Church in the city of St. Paul, that state, and he then passed a year in North Dakota, where he took up a homestead, besides serving as a local preacher and assisting in Sunday School work. After remaining in North Dakota eighteen months he accepted a pastorate at Glenwood Minnesota, where he remained two years. This was followed by a brief pastorate at Livingston, Mon- tana, and he was then called to the office of general seere- tary of the North Dakota Sunday School Association, of which position he continued the efficient incumbent six and one-half years, with headquarters in the City of Fargo.

In 1916, with a record of admirahle achievement in this office in North Dakota, Mr. Snow accepted his present position, that of general secretary of the West Virginia Sunday School Association, with headquarters at Clarks- burg. He has done an admirable work in systematizing the work of this association and has brought to bear pro- gressive policies that have conserved the remarkable growth and expansion of the organization. Under his regime the annual contributions for the support of the association and its work have increased from $8,000 to $30,000, while the original office force of three persons in the headquarters of the general secretary has been increased to ten, to meet the ever increasing demands.

Mr. Snow is affiliated with the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity of the University of Ohio, and he maintains affiliation also with the Masonic fraternity.

In 1899 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Snow and Miss Ella May Morris, a daughter of Rev. Maurice B. Morris, a veteran and honored clergyman of the Congre- gational Church.

WILLIAM BURRISS IRVINE is managing vice president of the National Bank of West Virginia, the oldest banking institution at Wheeling and the first to be established in Western Virginia.

It was organized as the Northwestern Bank of Virginia in 1817, and it is interesting to note that the first clerk of the bank was John List, a family and name that had not been without some interest in Wheeling's financial af- fairs for more than a century. The old Northwestern Bank was converted under the national banking law into the National Bank of West Virginia in 1865, and under that title is continued the history of the oldest bank in the state, and its resources and service have likewise made it one of the most substantial banks of West Virginia.

William Burriss Irvine has spent the greater part of active lifetime in this institution, and is justly regarded one of the financial authorities of the state. He was b at Smithfield, Jefferson County, Ohio, June 7, 1866. 1 grandfather, John Irvine, was born in Ireland in 18 and on coming to America settled at Smithfield with mother. After reaching manhood he studied law, practiced his profession for many years at Smithfie where he died in 1877. He married Rebecca Lemaste George Fleming Irvine, father of the Wheeling banker, v born at Smithfield in April, 1835, was reared and marr. in his native town, studied law but never practiced, a was a merchant until the outbreak of the Civil war. 1861 he joined an Ohio regiment of Infantry and } all through the period of hostilities, being with Shern on the march to the sea. After the war he remained Washington for several years, an employe in a Governme department. George F. Irvine came to Wheeling in t early seventies, and for a time was connected with 1 Bank of the Ohio Valley. In 1891 he removed to Pit burgh, where he was in the wholesale produce busine He died at Pittsburgh in the fall of 1914. He was a : publican, a very active member of the Christian Church was a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason and member of the Grand Army of the Republic. His fir wife, Rachel Burris, was born at Smithfield, Ohio, in 18: and died at Wheeling in 1871. She was the mother three children: Mary Rebecca, now of Pittsburgh; Jo Charles, who is in the coal business at Smithfield, Ohi and William B. The second wife of George F. Irvi was Sylvia Laughlin, who is now living at Pittsburgh.

William B. Irving was a child when his parents mov to Wheeling, and in this city he acquired his public-scho education. He is a graduate of Linsly Institute with ti class of 1884. Soon after leaving school he became a me senger boy with the Bank of the Ohio Valley, and remain with that institution three years. He then entered ti Exchange Bank of Wheeling as correspondence and co lection clerk, was promoted to assistant cashier and w: in the service of that institution until 1901, when he wel with the old Bank of Wheeling as cashier. The Bank Wheeling was consolidated with the National Bank of We Virginia in 1907, and since that consolidation Mr. Irvine b: been managing vice president of the latter.

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History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 2, Part 128

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