History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 2, Part 15

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is a trustee in the same. They were charter members of this church in Follansbee.


At the age of thirty-one years Mr. Mahan wedded SI Miriam Browning, daughter of Leander and Elizabeth (Steelman) Browning, she having been born on her fa ther's farm near the old homestead of the Mahan family. In conclusion is given brief record concerning the chil dren of Mr. and Mrs. Mahan: Mabel is the wife of F. E. Watson, of Follansbee; Bessie Allen became the wife of Ilarry C. Irwin and died at the age of thirty four years; Cornelia is the wife of John Brady, of St. Petersburg. Florida; Judith B. died nt the age of nineteen years, Lucille is the wife of James Banfield superintendent of the Follanshee Mill at Toronto, Ohio; Elizabeth Browning is the wife of D. R. Rooke, of Steubenville, Ohio; Thomas Wesley resides at Follansbee, as does also Orlando Stew art, the youngest son, who here conducts an automobile garage.


IIERMAN B. MAHAN, president of the Citizens Bank at Follausbee, Brooke County, was born in the old family home stead that was later replaced by a brick residence that is still standing and is now in the village of Follanaber. which is situated on a part of the old homestead farm of the Mahan family-property that has been in the pos session of the family for more than n century. Of this sterling and influential pioneer family detailed record is given above, in the personal sketch of Thomas J. Mahnn, an elder brother of Ilerman B., these two brothers hay- ing become associated in the ownership of the old home farm, a part of which they sold to the Follansbee Brothers as the site of the present vigorous little C'ity of Follansber. Here Herman B. Mahan was born November 6, 1552, and here he was renred to the sturdy discipline of the home farm, the while he profited by the advantages of the schools of the locality and period. lle and his brother. Thomas J., made the old home farm the stage of progres sive and successful agricultural and live-stock enterprises, besides there planting an orchard of fifty neres, now one of the largest and best in this part of the state, with many choice varieties of apples. The brothers have been actively concerned also in the development and upbuilding of Follansbee, where the pleasant home of Herman B. is situated on a part of the ancestral estate of the family. At Fellansbee Mr. Mahan has erected several houses and has otherwise been active in the real-estate business, lle was one of the organizers and is now president of the Citizens Bank at Follanshee, of which specific mention is made in following sketch. He is a republican in political allegianee, and he and his wife are active members of the Methodist Episcopal Church.


Mr. Mahan married Miss Martha Everett, daughter of Thomas Everett, of Wellsburg. and the two children of this union are: lferman Lee, who is assistant cashier of the Citizens Bank, and is a graduate of Bethany College; and Walter E., a student in the University of West Virginia.


THE CITIZENS BANK at Follansbee, Brooke County, was founded in 1906, about three years after this thriving lit. tle city had been established, and it has played an important part in the stable development and advancement of the community. Operations were based on a enpital stock of $25,000, and the original Board of Directors of the new institution had the following personnel: William Banfield, of Follanshee; Herman B. Mahan, now president of the bank; and W. W. Beal, John T. Douglasy, H. C. Meyer, J. S. Liggett and F. A. Chapman, all of Wellsburg. th county seat. The membership of the directorate in 1922 is as here noted: Iferman B. Mahan, president ; Charles L. Wilson, vice president ; J. V. Balch. enshi r; H. L. Mahan, assistant cashier; William Banfield, L. A. Diller, J. W. Walker, and F. A. Chapman. II. C. Meyer was the first president of the bank and continued as its chief executive until July, 1913, when he was succeeded by the present incumbent, Ilerman B. Mahan, who had previously been. from the beginning, its vice president. The first en hier. C. B. Crawford, continued his service until 1915, when he was succeeded by Frank Ziherl. Upon the death of Mr.


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Ziherl in 1919 J. V. Balch was chosen cashier, an office of which he has continued the efficient and popular in- enmbent. The Citizens Bank now has resources of $650,000, it has paid regular dividends to its stockholders and its affairs have been carefully and successfully ordered along conservative lines. In 1912 the institution erected its pres- ent modern and attractive building, the appointments and equipment of which are of the best standard, and include a burglar-alarm system. Of the president of this sub- stantial bank individual record is given in preceding sketch.


C. P. FORTNEY is a civil engineer by profession, and in April, 1921, was selected by Governor Morgan as chairman of the State Road Commission of West Virginia. The two other members of this commission are N. Price Whitaker and E. B. Stephenson. While the subject of roads is dealt with in much detail by Doctor Callahan in the historical volume, something may be said bere as to the official interest taken by the state in the subject.


The beginning of state road supervision dates from 1872 at the adoption of the new constitution, when all road work was turned over to the respective counties, except that of the New Cumberland Road, which was in the hands of the Board of Public Works. The first attempt at the codifica- tion of road laws came in 1906. The following year a highway inspector was named, who worked under the Board of Agriculture and in close association with the State University. In 1909 a commission was provided for, and Governor Glasscock appointed Charles P. Light, Edward D. Baker and Ray C. Teter. A levy of I cent was raised as state aid to roads. Two years later the law was modified, and funds which had accumulated to the amount of some- thing over $226,000 were distributed to the counties without provision as to its ultimate use. No accounting was ever made of this money.


In 1913 a State Road Bureau was created, Governor Henry D. Hatfield naming A. D. Williams as chief road engineer, with George D. Cortland and J. W. Lynch, asso- ciates. No provision was made for financing their work except from university funds. Road schools about that time were established as part of the university extension work.


In 1917 a bi-partisan board of two members was created, with C. P. Fortney as chairman and James K. Monroe as secretary and treasurer. In 1921 the membership was in- creased to three, permitting the minority party to be repre- sented by one member. This commission organized with a division engineer in each of the five divisions of the state, and with three departments-road construction and main- tenance, autos and traffic, audits and purchase. Bonds to the amount of $15,000,000 were authorized, though only $50,000 could be disposed of at one time. The road fund also has the vehicle license fees, which now aggregate about $2,000,000 a year. A state system of road construction has been adopted, and at this writing contracts to the amount of about $5,000,000 have been let.


C. P. Fortney has been closely associated with high- way developments for a number of years. He was born in Harrison County, June 30, 1879. His grandfather, Jacob D. Fortney, moved to Harrison County from Preston County. His father, E. R. Fortney, has spent his life in Harrison County as a farmer. C. P. Fortney attended preparatory school at Fairmont, and graduated as a civil engineer from West Virginia University in 1907. In 1909 he married Jessie Jenkins, of Pennsylvania. They were classmates in the university. They have four children.


JOHN J. HENDERSON, osteopathie physician, president of the State Osteopathic Association, has been in practice for about fifteen years at Charleston. His has been a distinctive service in the medical profession, and out of his experience and studies he has written several valuable books on health and right living.


He was born in Lincoln County, West Virginia, in 1877, and acquired a thorough academic education, but he is a man whose insatiable intellectual curiosity would never be satisfied and he is a student now and has covered an astonishingly wide range of subjects both within and with- out his profession. He graduated in 1905 from the New


York School of Osteopathy, soon located at St. Albans Kanawha County, but remained there only a brief tir when he established his permanent home in Charlesto Doctor Henderson since graduation has taken numero post-graduate courses in medical colleges of nearly all t. recognized schools, including the allopathic and home pathic, and through hard study and investigation has a quired and put into practice an exhaustive knowledge the human body, its ailments and their treatment. Bo as a physician and as a citizen Doctor Henderson h earned exceptional esteem in Charlston. His home is + the south side, one of the beautiful places of the city.


He was elected president of the West Virginia Osteopath Association at the annual convention in Huntington in Oct her, 1921.


He married Miss Frances Kathleen Henley, a native Kanawha County. Her father, the late C. W. Henle. achieved substantial fame as a tunnel bnilder and railro: contractor, and did most of the tunnel construction on tl; Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad in West Virginia.


Doctor Henderson devoted several years of hard stu to the chemistry of the body. One of the results w: his discovery of a method of isolation of the various el ments of the blood and a method of treatment by whic. he can supply these elements to the person in whose bloc any of the elements may be lacking, as in cases of anem and in brain, nervous, muscular and bone disorders. Medic authorities have pronounced it a distinctive scientif achievement.


Doctor Henderson chose a profession as a means { satisfying his great ambition for human service, and th ambition has led him into many activities far beyond tl scope of the average physician. He has written and pu lished a number of books on the physical and mental il that afflict the race, with full outlines and directions f their treatment and cure, accompanied by illuminatir illustrations. The first four of these books bear the follow ing titles: "Apoplexy, Paralysis, High Blood Pressure an Nervous Diseases, Prevention and Cure; "' "The Scient of Food Selection; "' "How to Eliminate Uric Acid Toxin and Body Poisons; " "How to Adjust Mental Maladjus ments." These books are all small in size, the subje matter brief and concise, are written in the plainest ar most understandable English, with complete avoidance technical or scientific words and phrases, thus making the available for use and profit by all persons possessed of a ordinary education. His work on Mental Maladjustmen is undoubtedly the only one that has ever made th psychopathic sciences understandable and of real benef to persons of ordinary education.


G. F. DAUGHERTY who has to his credit a veteran service as a locomotive engineer with the Norfolk ar Western Railway, was called in the spring of 1921 by a] pointment of Governor Morgan to the duties of state con missioner of labor, with headquarters at Charleston. E has charge of the Bureau of Labor and is ex-officio con missioner of weights and measures. The State Bureau ( Labor has been in existence officially for many years, bi only within recent years has it become a vital and importar part of the state government. This development of th office itself is directly due to the remarkable development ( the state's industries, manufacturing. The bureau ha charge of the inspection service over factories, mercanti establishments, mills and workships, looks after all th measures providing safeguards and sanitary precaution for workers, and also has the enforcement of the chil labor law. Under Commissioner Daughtery are five fa tory inspectors and two sealers of weights and measure besides a numerons force of minor employes. The respon sibilities of the bureau have been greatly enlarged throug the enactment of the new child labor law of the state i 1919. This child labor law is directly modeled after an largely conforms to the Federal law on the same subject.


Mr. Daugherty was born in Tazewell County, Virginia in 1869, son of Rev. David and Nannie ( Moore) Daughterty of Irish and Scotch-Irish ancestry. His father, who ws a Methodist minister, was born in the Valley of Vir


5


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HISTORY OF WEST VIRGINIA


nia, his grandfather having come from Ireland to that ite. The Moores are an old family of Virginia, having ught in the Indian wars in Colonial times.


G. F. Daugherty was reared on a farm, but his entire tive service has been as a railroad man and with one mpany, the Norfolk & Westera. Before he reached his ijority he was doing duty as a brakeman, subsequently s locomotive fireman for three years, and in 1597 was omoted to locomotive engineer. He had filled that post duty continuously for nearly twenty-four years when he s called to the state capitol as commissioner of labor, but still holds his seniority rights as locomotive engineer for e company. Since 1892 his home has been at Bluefield, d his family still live there, though his official head- arters are in the state capitol. All of his railroad rvice has been on the Pocahontas Division of the Nor- lk & Western, the division headquarters being at Blue- Id. For several years before becoming a commissioner labor he had charge of one of the great electrically iven locomotives of the Norfolk & Western.


Mr. Daugherty for many years has been a prominent mem- r of the Brotherhood' of Locomotive Engineers. He is a val Arch Mason, Knight of Pythias and Elk and a ember of the Methodist Church.


He married Miss May Walker, also a native of Virginia. teir six sons are James S., Hubert A., William C., Elmo. rlisle and Paul. All the people of the state as well as r. Daugherty find reasons for pride in the record of his ree oldest song, all in the service of their country in ance during the World war. Huhert and William were lunteers after America entered the war with Germany. mes S. had been in the Regular Army for about three ars previously, was on the Mexican border during 1916, d was a member of General Pershing's bodyguard in the initive expedition into Mexico in the fall of that year. r. Daugherty is one of the comparatively few men in the ate who had three sons represented overseas in the late ır.


CARL J. PATTERSON finds ample demand upon his time id attention in the discharging of nis several scholastic id executive functions. At West Liberty, Ohio County, e seat of one of the oldest of the state normal schools West Virginia, he is principal of the high school and cretary of the Board of Education, besides which he is ving effective service also as superintendent of the schools Liberty District.


Mr. Patterson was born in Belmont County, Ohio, No- ·mber 15, 1894, and is a foster son of Harrison and Lovina atterson, in whose home he was reared with all the loving licitude and advautitious privileges that could be accorded 7 the most devoted of parents, with the result that he ive to them most loyal filial affection and has attributed their teachings and high ideals much of the success and Ivancement which he has won in later years. The home the Patterson family was at MeMechen, West Virginia, id there the foster son acquired his preliminary education the public schools. That he made good use of his ad- intages is shown by the fact that when he was fifteen ara old he proved himself eligible for and was admitted the West Virginia State Normal School at West Liberty. is ambition, even at that time was to fit himself for teach- g, and to defray his expenses he worked in factories and 1 farms, in mills and at other employment that would aid m in completing his education. He was graduated in le West Liberty Normal School as a member of the class ' 1915, and has since been actively engaged in educa- onal work in the same community. He is, in 1922, serving 's second year as principal of the West Liberty High chool, has been for two years secretary of the local Board f Education, and about two years also have marked his Iministration as district superintendent of schools for iherty District, in which connection he has supervision ! eleven schools and fifteen teachers. As principal of the igh school he has two assistant teachers, the earollment { pupils numbering thirty-five. A new high-school build- ig is under construction and will be completed in the ring or summer of 1922, with modern equipment and


six classrooms. Mr. Patterson is identified with various educational associations, including the West Virginia Stato Teachers Association; he is a post master of Liberty Lodge No. 26, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and in the Scottish Rite of the same time honored fraternity he has received the thirty second degree in the Consistory at Wheel ing where also he is a member of the Temple of the Mystic Shrine. His wife, whose maiden name was Marjorie Smyth, is a daughter of W. B. Smyth, of Morgantown, and she was prior to her marriage a student in the West Literty State Normal School. Mr. and Mrs. Patterson have two children, Robert Bruce and Carl J., Jr


CHARLES L. WILSON, who is secretary, treasurer and gen eral manager of the Builders Supply Company nt Fol ans. bec, Brooke County, and who resides at Wellsburg, the eounty seat, is one of the progressive and representative business men of his native county.


The organization of the Builders Supply Company, in 1904, was virtually coincident with the founding of the town of Follansbee, which was platted in the preceding year. Mr. Wilson has been secretary, treasurer and gen eral manager of the company from the time of its incor poration, and the concern has been one of the important functions in connection with the development and upbuild ing of the now thriving little industrial City of Follan-Fee. The company handles all kinds of building materials, con- trols a substantial local trade and gives employment to an adequate corps of assistants to the manager.


Mr. Wilson was born on a farm in Cross Creek Dis- triet. Brooke County, in the year Is79, and is a son of George L. and Rachel ( Park) Wilson, both likewise natives of Brooke County, the Wilson family having here been established in the pioneer days, and Jonathan Wilson, grandfather of the subject of this sketch, having here been a representative farmer and citizen from his young manhood until his death, at advanced age. Robert Park, maternal grandfather of Charles L. Wilson, came to Amer- ica from Londonderry, Ireland, about the year 1797, and became one of the very early settlers in Brooke County. where he became actively identified with the operation of flatboats used in transporting produce and merchandise up and down the Ohio River. Later he engaged in farm enterprise in Brooke County, and he passed the rest of his life on this farm and attained to the patriarchal age of ninety-one years. His old homestead later became the property of George L. Wilson, and it was on this farm that the latter continued his productive activities until 1900. His death occurred in 1915, at the age of sixty-three years, and his widow died at the age of sixty-four years. It was on this old homestead that Charles L. Wilson was born and reared, and he there remained until he was twenty- one years of age, his early education having been gaine ! in the local schools and supplemented by a course in the high school at Wellsburg and by attending a business college. His first business venture was in the establishing of a feed store at Wellsburg, and this enterprise he con tinned until he became associated with Robert Scott, J. M. Walker, J. S. Liggett and George L. Wilson, his father. in organizing the Builders Supply Company of Follans bec. The stock of the company is now held Inrgely by local men and J. M. Brady is president of the corporation Mr. Wilson was one of the original stockhollers of the Citizens Bank of Follanshee, and had served as a director of the same prior to becoming its vice president in 191: when Herman B. Mahan, former incumbent of this office. became president of the institution. Mr. Wilson is a demo erat in politics, and in the Masonic fraternity he has received the thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite.


Mr. Wilson married Miss Margaret Buey, daughter of Erasmus Bucy. of Wellsburg, and the two children of this union are George and Margaret.


ARTHUR LANGHANS has been a resident of Wheelir g twenty years, going to that city from the Pittsburgh Dis- trict, where he spent his early life. The name Langhans is associated all over the Wheeling District with the flora


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HISTORY OF WEST VIRGINIA


trade, and he has developed what is probably the largest retail flower business in this part of the Upper Ohio Valley.


Mr. Langhans was born in the City of Allegheny, now a part of Greater Pittsburgh, July 1, 1876. His grand- father, William Langhans, spent his life in and around the City of Berlin, Germany, and for many years was actively identified with educational work there. He died at the age of sixty-eight. Herman Langhans, father of Arthur, was born at Berlin in 1837 and came to the United States about 1859. He possessed a liberal educa- tion and for a number of years was a professor in private schools in Allegheny, Pennsylvania. Ill health eventually forced him out of this profession, and he went into the dry goods business, but for the last ten years of his life was connected with the Equitable Life Insurance Company of Pittsburgh. He died at Allengheny in 1905. He was a democratie voter until Cleveland's second election and there- after voted as a republican. He was always very diligent in the performance of his duties as a member of the Lnth- eran Church. His wife, Mary Hallstein, was born at Zeli- enople in Butler County, Pennsylvania, in 1844, and died at Allegheny in 1886. She became the mother of seven children: Harry J., an artist who died at Pittsburgh at the age of twenty-two; Theodore P., secretary and part owner of the Pittsburgh Cut Flower Company; Arthur; Hulda, wife of Alfred Bechtold, a representative of the Macaskey Register Company, living at Belleview, Pennsyl- vania; Dora, wife of Edward Taylor, a machinist at States- ville, North Carolina; Rev. Walter S., a Lutheran minister in Pennsylvania; Allen M., an oil operator at Warren, Pennsylvania.


Arthur Langhans acquired a public-school education at Allegheny, graduating from bigh school in 1892. The year following he spent in the Pittsburgh office of R. G. Dun & Company, and for six years was shipping clerk for the Kaufmann Department Stores Company. With the benefit of this general business training Mr. Langhans en- tered the flower business as a retail florist at Steubenville, Ohio, remaining there for three years, and in 1901 sought a larger field at Wheeling. In this eity he established his first retail flower shop at 1404 Market Street. He moved to a larger store at 1157 Market Street in 1905, and with the continued growth of his business he finally moved to 1217 Chapline Street, where he has a store and offices in which he direets the largest retail floral business in this part of the state. He employs as high as forty-two hands in the business. The freshest of flowers come from "Langhans the Florist," and shipments are made from his store to hundreds of towns around Wheeling. Mr. Lang- hans is also a director in the Wheeling Bank & Trust Com- pany, is a republican, is a trustee of the First United Presbyterian Church of Wheeling and is affiliated with Wheeling Lodge No. 5, F. and A. M., West Virginia Con- sistory No. 1 of the Seottish Rite and Osiris Temple of the Mystic Shrine. He is a member of Wheeling Lodge No. 28, B. P. O. E., the Ancient Order of United Workmen, and the Wheeling Country Club. During the Spanish-American war he was a member of the Pennsylvania State Guard and was mustered into service with the Naval Reserves. Mr. Langhans has a very attractive home on Hawthorne Court, Woodsdale, Wheeling. The house itself is one of the beau- tiful ones of that attractive residenee suburb, but the dis- tinetive features are the grounds and flower gardens main- tained by Mr. Langhans.


In 1899, near Belleview, Pennsylvania, Mr. Langhans married Adah Blanche Taylor, daughter of Samuel and Agnes M. (Oakley) Taylor, her mother still living at Belle- view, where her father died. He was a farmer. Mrs. Langhans finished her education in a business school.


EMMET L. BAILEY, mayor of Bluefield, can probably claim the distinction of being the oldest native son of that industrial and commercial city, and both as a business man and citizen has made a career that honors his birth- place. Mr. Bailey for a number of years was in the railroad service, until his manufacturing and other in- dustrial interests demanded his entire attention. He is


president of the Bailey Lumber Company and presidt of the Bluefield Garage Company.




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