History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 2, Part 13

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Mr. Evans holds the principles of the republican party as worthy of his unqualified support, he is a member of the Guyan Country Club, and is affiliated with Huntington Lodge No. 313, B. P. O. E.

At Hot Springs, Virginia, on the 8th of February, 1913, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Evans and Miss Ida MeClintie, a daughter of Jacob MeClintic, a retired stock dealer residing at Hot Springs, his wife being deceased. Mrs. Evans is a graduate of Lewisburg Seminary at Lewisburg, Greenbrier County, West Virginia. Mr. and Mrs. Evans have no children.

CLAUDE GILBERT LEMASTERS conducta a representative business as a certified public accountant in the City of Huntington, where he is president of C. G. LeMasters & Company, of which his only son, Earlo H., is secretary and treasurer, the offices of the concern being established in suite 915-916 First National Bank Building, besides which offices are maintained also at $35 Monsey Building in the City of Washington, D. C.

Mr. LeMasters was born at Brownsville, Oregon, March 6, 1876, and is the only child of William F. and Lueinda (Simons) LeMasters, the former of whom was born at Frankfort, Kentucky, in 1\40, and the latter of whom way born at Knoxville, Illinois, Angust 16, 1550. William F. LeMasters gained his early education in the schools of his native eity, and was a lad of about twelve years when he accompanied his parents across the plains to Oregon. in 1852, the long and perilous journey having been made with wagon and ox team and he having rude & Borse and driven a small herd of eattle on this eventful pioneer trip. The family home was established nt Brownsville, Oregon. where he was reared to manhood and where eventually he became a representative merchant, as a dealer in boots and shoes. He was a demoerat in politics, and both he und his wife were most earnest and active members of the Christian Church. Their marriage was solemnized at Brownsville, and both were residents of Oregon until their deaths, William F. LeMasters having passed the closing years of his life at Salem, that state, where he died in 1912. Ile served as a member of an Oregon regiment in the Civil war.

In the publie schools of Oregon Claude G. LeMasters continued his studies until his graduation in the high school at Amity in 1895. For a year thereafter he was a atu- dent at Mineral Springs Academy at Sodaville, that state. and he then completed the work of the junior year in the University of Oregon, at Eugene. He next passed two years as a student in the Eugene Bible University, in preparation for the ministry of the Christian Church. In 1901 he became pastor of churches of this denomination at Corvallis and Dallas, Oregon, and he continued his ministerial service until 1904. when he made a radical change of vocation and became a telegraph operator on the Sacramento (California) division of the Southern Pacitic Railroad. Two years later he was promoted to the position of cashier and chief elerk for the same company at Reao. Nevada, and after thus serving two years he was for six months paying teller of the Farmers & Merchants National Bank of Reno. He then effected the organization of the Carson Valley Bank, at Carson City, that atate, and of this institution he served as cashier until 191]. During the ensuing year he was eashier of the Richinond National Bank and of the Richmond Savings Bank, allied institu- tions, at Richmond, California. He then purchased the plant and business of a weekly newspaper at Amity, Oregon. and he continued as editor and publisher of this paper until 1918, in March of which year he went to the City of Washington, D. C., where for one year he held the post of chief auditor of the coal section of the excess protit tax division. In March, 1919, he removed to the City of Chicago and engaged in the public accounting business, as a member of the firm of Crawford & LeMasters, in which his associate was P. L. Crawford. He remained thus engaged in the great metropolis at the foot of Lnke Michi- gan until November, 1920, when he established hia present business as a certified publie accountant in the City of Ifuntington.

Mr. LeMasters is a staunch advocate of the principles of the republican party, and he and his wife are active members of the Christian Church in their home city. At Turner, Oregon, he still maintains affiliation with Pearl Lodge No. 66, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and he is a member also of Huntington Lodge No. 313, Benev- olent and Protective Order of Elks. He is a member of the Guyandotte Club of Huntington and is an active mem- ber of the National Association of Certified Pabl'e Ac- countants.

At Amity, Oregon, in June, 1893, was solemnized the

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marriage of Mr. LeMasters and Miss Myrtle Hamilton, a daughter of James K. and Sadie E. (Towner) Hamilton, both now deceased, Mr. Hamilton having been a successful farmer near Amity, Oregon. Earle H., the only child of Mr. and Mrs. LeMasters, was born in Oregon, July 24, 1900, and after his graduation in the Lincoln High School in the City of Portland, that state, he furthered his edu- cation by a course in the accounting school of North- western University, in the City of Chicago, later complet- ing a course of similar and advanced line at Pace In- stitute, Washington, D. C. where in 1921 he received his degree of Certified Public Accountant. He has since been associated with his father in business, as noted in an earlier paragraph of this review. Earle H. LeMasters enlisted in the United States Navy in September, 1918, attended the Officers Training School maintained at George Washington University, in the national capital, where as a member of the Naval Reserves he was stationed at the time when the great World war came to a close.

WELLINGTON EARL WEIDLER is a chemical engineer by profession and for a number of years, except during the war, has been identified with oil refining, and is now both an executive as well as a technical expert of the Elk Refining Company, being manager of the Charleston offices.

Mr. Weidler was born at Erie, Pennsylvania, in 1890. He acquired a liberal education, attending Allegheny College at Meadville, Pennsylvania, and prepared for his profession in the technical schools of Cornell University, where he was graduated with the degree Chemical Engineer in 1912. Following that for several years he was em- ployed in the export department of the Standard Oil Company.

The active service he rendered at the time of the World war was as a captain in the Quartermaster's Corps, U. S. A. For a time he was stationed at Camp Merritt and later transferred to New York City. Captain Weidler received his honorable discharge in January, 1919, and in 1920 came to Charleston to become manager of the Elk Refining Company. Mr. H. A. Logan, of Warren, Pennsylvania, is president of this company, which owns and operates the Elk Refinery at Falling Rock in Kanawha County, while the executive offices are in Charleston, with Mr. Weidler in charge as manager and technical expert supervising all the refinery processes. The Falling Rock plant is one of the largest and best equipped refineries in West Virginia, producing various grades of refined oil from the crude production in the nearby fields. The normal output of the refinery is a thousand barrels per day.

Although a young man, Captain Weidler has earned a high reputation as a chemical engineer and an expert in oil refining. He is a popular citizen of Charleston, a member of the Edgewood Country Club, the Rotary Club and the Chamber of Commerce. He married Miss Helen Fawcett, of Oil City, Pennsylvania. They have one son, Wellington Earl, Jr., and one daughter, Suzanne.

Captain Weidler is a member of the Masonic fraternity, having been initiated into the order as a member of the Zion Lodge, A. F. and A. M., Johannesburg, Sonth Africa. He is also a member of Phi Delta Theta fraternity, Delta Chapter, Cornell University.

C. L. TOPPING. The office of state fire marshal is one that in the hands of such a capable man as C. L. Topping involves an enormous and vital service to every interest of the state. Besides the routine service involved in the office Mr. Topping has made his department of primary value through the educational campaign he has carried on in the direction of fire prevention.

Marshal Topping prepared and had distributed through- out the schools of the state, 50,000 copies of a manual entitled "Safeguarding the Home Against Fire." This manual contains full and explicit directions for preventing fires, and sets forth in plain but impressive manner the enormous waste and financial disaster that annually result in this state simply from carelessness and lack of thought in observing the most elemental precautions that would

avoid fire. The matter in the booklet is arranged an presented in the most attractive manner, accompanied b striking illustrations, so that the subject is easily under stood by everyone from the oldest to the youngest. Ir deed some of Mr. Topping's strongest appeals are to th young people, and the propaganda he carries on throug the Boy Scouts is particularly forcible. Mr. Topping i therefore doing a work of much wider scope than would b measured by the formal nature of his jurisdiction, an has already succeeded in winning the cooperation and at proval of public bodies and individuals throughout th state.

While Mr. Topping is not a native of West Virginia his parents moved to the state when he was a child an he has spent the greater part of his life at Charleston. H has been in public affairs for a number of years, and ha perhaps as wide a circle of friends and acquaintance throughout the state as any other man. Mr. Topping wa clerk of the House of Delegates in the State Legislatur from 1907 to 1909 and again in 1919. He was mad state fire marshal in June, 1921.

He is a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason, Shriner, and a life member of the Charleston Lodge o Elks. Mr. Topping married Miss Mary E. Wyatt, who wa born and reared in Kanawha County. Their three daughter are Mrs. J. M. McVey, Mrs. H. T. Lyttleton and Mrs. F S. Stone.

ARNOLD B. MCCUTCHEON. In the City of Richwood Nicholas County, Mr. MeCutcheon owns and conducts a undertaking and funeral directing establishment of the he! modern equipment and service, and he is known and value as one of the representative business men and liberal an progressive citizens of this fine little industrial city.

Mr. MeCutcheon was born on a farm near Hominy Fall Nicholas County, September 18, 1853, and is a son of Joh W. and Ann (Amick) MeCutcheon, both likewise natives ( this county, where the former was born in 1832 and th latter in 1828-dates that indicate clearly that the respe tive families were here founded in the pioneer days. Afte their marriage the parents settled on the farm near Homin. Falls, and there they passed the remainder of their live folk of noble character and given to the constructive il dustry that ever conserves communal prosperity, both havin been earnest members of the Methodist Episcopal Church South, and Mr. MeCutcheon having been unflagging in h allegiance to the democratic party. Of their eight childre five are living at the time of this writing, in 1922, and ( this number the subject of this review is the eldest; Pet B. is a resident of Wyoma, Mason County; Sarah is widow and resides in the City of Columbus, Ohio; Isa is tl wife of A. O. Odell; and John is a resident of the State ( Kansas.

He whose name initiates this review gained his initi. experience by aiding in the work of the old home farm, ar in the meanwhile profited by the advantages afforded in tl local schools, he having remained at the parental home unt he attained to his legal majority, when he married and b gan his independent carcer as a farmer. The energy ar resourcefulness which he mainfested in his farm enterpri: have been equally effective in connection with the busine which he now conducts in the City of Richwood, and 1 commands unqualified confidence and esteem in his nati county, his loyalty to which is unstinted and marked } full appreciation of its advantages and attractions. E has never had any desire for public office, but is a loy supporter of the principles of the republican party, and a fraternal way he is affiliated with the Loyal Order ( Moose. His religious faith is that of the Methodist Episc pal Church, South, of which his wife likewise was a devote member.

Mr. Mccutcheon was united in marriage to Miss Mai E. Nicholas, and the supreme bereavement in his life can when she passed to eternal rest, her death having occurre February 7, 1919. Of their nine children all but one survi' the devoted mother: Cynthia C. is the wife of D. P. Odel Anna is the wife of E. P. Carter; Bertha is the wife ( Henry Pittsenbarger; William B. resides in the City

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Charleston; Martha is the wife of Kellis Morris; Theresa is the wife of L. H. Boor; Osie is the wife of Robert Eckert; and Lottie is the wife of W. W. MeClung.

REV. CLOYD GOODNIGHT has been president of Bethany College since 1919. This institution, founded more than eighty years ago by Rev. Alexander Campbell, who was its president until his death in 1866, has been one of the nost influential among the smaller colleges of tho nation. While in a sense it has been the chief center of culture for the traditions and principles of the founder of the Church of the Disciples, it has also educated many men who have become prominent in other professions and walks than the ministry, and the prominent men who have regarded it as a distinction that they were at some time students of old Bethany would comprise an impressive list both in length ind in volume of achievement.

Cloyd Goodnight was born at Michigantown, Clinton Coun- ty, Indiana, December 2, 1881, son of John and Ida (Lay- toa) Goodnight. llis grandfather, William Goodnight, was born in llardy County, West Virginia, and as a young man removed to Indiana. Rev. Cloyd Goodnight finished lis education in Butler College of Indianapolis, graduating 1. B. in 1906 and with the Master of Arts degree in 1907. lle was also a special student in the University of Chi- >ago in 1912. Ile was ordained to the ministry of the Christian or Disciples Chureb in 1907, and for two years was pastor of a church at Danville, Indiana, and from 1910 to 1913, of Shelbyville, that state. In 1913 he ac- epted the pastorate of the Central Christian Church at I'niontown, Pennsylvania, and remained there until he took up his duties as president of Bethany College on July 17, 1919. Bethany College under bis administration is one of the efficient units in the higher educational institutions of the state. . It enrolls about three hundred pupils, has'twenty- four members of the faculty, and two-thirds of the student group represent other states than West Virginia, a eonda- tion that has been quite uniformly characteristic of Bethany since its founding. Rev. Goodnight gives his entire time to his duties as president and as a member of the faculty. He is well qualified for his office, has a strong and pleas- ing personality, and has a record of splendid work as a minister. He married Miss Anna Hussey, of Carmel, Indiana, November 20, 1907. They have two children, John Thomas and Ida Franees.

HENRY CLAY WELLS is one of the progressive agrieultur- ists and stoek-growers of his native state, and is a seion oť une of the honored pioneer families of West Virginia, his post office address being Beechbottom, Brooke County. His father, Robert M. Wells, was the second son of Basilcel Wells, whose father was Absalom Wells, a descendant of one of three brothers who came from Wales to America in an early day, one of the number having settled at Steuben- ville, Ohio, which place, as Wellsburg, was originally named in his honor. Absalom Wells was a resident of what is now Brooke County, West Virginia, at the time of his death, and his remains here rest in the old family cemetery on the farm of his son, Basileel, a part of this property being still in the possession of the family. On this old pioneer homestead Basileel Wells was born and reared, and there he passed his entire life, as one of the representative farm- ers of this section of the present State of West Virginia, his landed estate having comprised about eleven hundred acres. He married Nancy MeIntire, and the remains of both rest in the old family cemetery above mentioned. Both were devout and influential members of the Christian Church in their community. In the Wells home, about seven miles from Bethany, Rev. Alexander Campbell, the founder of the Christian or Campbellite Church, frequently visited, he having been a close friend of the family. The children of Basileel Wells were eight sons and three daughters. Absalom passed his entire life in Brooke County and was one of its venerable and honored citizens at the time of his death, aged seventy-eight years; Robert M. will be men- tioned in later paragraphs; the daughter Michael became the wife of Rev. Thomas V. Berry, a elergyman of the Christian Church, and they removed to Illinois, her death

having occurred at Monmouth, that siste; Labus, who Mua a prosperous farmer near the old homestead, died at the age of seventy-six, a man of unassuming worth of char Heter; Milton attouded Bethany College, was a successful teacher as a young man and brenme a pioneer clergyman of the Christian Church in Wisconsin, his published memoirs giving interesting record of his work in that Commonwealth, and further distinction having been his by reason of his loyal service as a soldier of the Union, in a West Virginia regiment, in the Civil war.

Robert M. Wells was born and reared on the old home farm and, as a young man he married Elien Ann Carl, a daughter of John Carle, a member of a leading manu facturing firm at Wellsburg. Robert M. Wells finally soldl his original farm and purchased another, rear Went Liberty, Brooke County, where he remained until well advanced m years, when he removed to Wellsburg, where he died nt the age of eighty-seven years, Ile was a man who was just and upright in all the relations of life, imbued with excel lent judgment and much business ability, and contributed his share to eivic and material advancement in his native county. He survived his wife by eighteen years, both bay ing been zealous members of the Christian Church. Of the children who attained to mature years the elder was Vir ginia Ella, who became the wife of Edgar Wells (no fam ily kinship). IIe was a leading architect and builder in the City of Wheeling at the time of his death, he having been drowned in the Ohio River. Ilis wife died at the age of tifty-nine years. The younger of the two children in Henry C., immediate subject of this review.

Henry Clay Wells was born on his father's farm, not far distant from his own farm of the present day, and the date of his nativity was October 27, 1853. His early educa tion included a course in the West Liberty Normni School, and his entire active career has been marked by close sue cessful and progressive association with farm industry. Ilis home farm comprises 200 acres, and he owns also 295 acres of the ancestral homestead, both places being ex eellently improved. His home farm is that formerly owned by his unele, Ezbai Wells, on the Ohio Valley Road, twelve miles north of Wheeling and five miles south of Wells- burg. He is a stockholder in the West l'enn Railroad and the West Penn Power Company, is a director and vice pres- ident of the Farmers State Bank at Wellsburg and a di- rector of the Commercial Bank at that place. Ile has done much to advance the standards of agricultural and live stock industry in his native county and state, and in all of the relations of life has upheld the high honors of the family name. He is a republican in politics, but has had no desire for political office. He has shown his civic and communal loyalty, however, by service as a member of the Board of Education and also the County Board of Equal- ization. lle and his family retain the ancestral religious faith, that of the Christian Church.

Mrs. Jennie Walker ( Hedges) Wells, the first wife of Henry C. Wells, was a daughter of the late Bukey Hedges, who was a prosperous farmer near West Liberty. The mari- tal companionship of Mr. and Mrs. Wells continued forty- five years and was broken by the death of the loved wife and mother. The two children who survive her are Lena (). and Carl Walker. The son, the maiden name of whose wife was Berlin Underwood, is operating a dairy farm and business near the home place of his father, and his five children are: Virginia, Ira Emerson, Esther Carle, Henry Robert and Elvina Catherine.

On December 6, 1916, Henry C. Wells married Elizabeth Maude Smith, who had been for twelve years a successful kindergarten teacher at Washington and Beaver, Pennsyl vania. She is a daughter of John E. Smith, & representa tive farmer of Brooke County, and is a great-niece of the late Dr. Edward Smith, who was one of the able, honored and loved physicians of this section of West Virginia for many years.

EDWARD SMITH, M. D., gave nearly sixty years to the practice of his profession in Brooke County, where he passed his entire life and where he was a selon of an honored pio- neer family that was here founded when this section way

HISTORY OF WEST VIRGINIA

little more than a frontier wilderness. His father, Wil- liam Smith, from New Jersey, here established the family home in 1796, and here reclaimed a farm from the forest wilds, this ancestral homestead having continued in the possession of the Smith family for more than a century. Adequate record concerning this influential pioneer family is given below, in the personal sketch of Edward M. Smith.

Doctor Smith was born on the old home farm and early gained his share of pioneer experience as a farm worker. He made good use of such educational advantages as were here offered, and thereafter broadened his intellectual ken by private study and reading and by his preliminary disci- pline in preparing himself for his chosen profession. After becoming a physician and surgeon of marked skill he con- tinued to reside on the farm and follow his profession many years. He then removed to Wellsburg, the county seat, and later he established his home at West Liberty, where he died at a venerable age. In his profession he had a high sense of stewardship, and no labor or personal sacrifice was too great to deter him from ministering to those in affliction or distress, his genial presence and un- failing kindness, as well as his able professional service, having made him one of the most revered and loved men in Brooke County. He was a member of the Virginia House of Delegates at the time of the secession of West Virginia and the organization of a new state under this name. He was an implacable opponent of human slavery and had been a strong whig to the climacteric period culminating in the Civil war. He thus naturally became a local leader in the republican party, and he utilized his fine powers as a public speaker by doing vigorous campaign service for his party, his two sons having inherited much of his ability along this line. The son, Robert, became a clergyman of the Methodist Episcopal Church and also president of a college in the State of Ohio. The son, Ebe- nezer, achieved success as a teacher and as a public speaker, and he likewise established his home in Ohio. Mrs. Hervey, a daughter of the Doctor, became the mother of Hon. Clay Henry Hervey, who attained to prominence as a teacher, lawyer and jurist in West Virginia and who served about sixteen years on the bench of the Circuit Court. Hle re- tained this position until his death, at the age of fifty-six years, and his sisters are still residents of Wellsburg.

In his character and achievement Doctor Smith honored his native county and state, and added new laurels to the family name.

EDWARD M. SMITH has been for nearly twenty consecutive years county assessor of Brooke County, and this fact af- fords ample evidence of the high estimate placed upon him in the county of which he is a native and a representative of an honored pioneer family.

On the old homestead farm of the Smith family, 31% miles east of Wellsburg, the county seat, Edward M. Smith was born August 2, 1863, a son of John E. and Permelia (Green) Smith. On the same ancestral homestead John E. Smith was born on the 12th of March, 1838, and he met a tragic death, November 30, 1917, when he was drowned in the Ohio River. He had attended church services, and in a terrific storm that was raging at the time when he left the church he became confused in directions and thus met his death, he having been a resident of Wellsburg during the last five years of his life. The old Green homestead farm, inherited by his wife is now in the possession of their son, Edward M., the home of the family having there beeu maintained for many years. John E. Smith was a son of Andrew Smith, who was born on the same old homestead in 1802, a son of William Smith, who came from New Jersey in 1796 and secured the land on which he here settled in the following year, he having been somewhat more than thirty years old at the time. The land, 288 acres, was covered with timber, and the first domicile of the family was a log cabin, which William Smith later replaced with a commodious brick house erected on a hill and constituting one of the first brick structures in this section. This his- toric landmark continued as the farm home of the Smith family for fully a century and was finally destroyed by fire in 1914. The ancestral homestead later was sold to

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History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 2, Part 13

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