History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 2, Part 164

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Mr. Wright is a stalwart in the local ranks of the re- publican party and is serving, in 1921-2, as associate chair- man of the Republican County Committee of McDowell County. He is affiliated with Kilwinning Lodge, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, in the City of Cincinnati, and also with a Chapter of the Royal Arch Masons in that city.

James. K. Grubb-

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t Bluefield, West Virginia, he is a member of the Lodge ! the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elka. He is a ember of the Congregational Church and his wife of the resbyterian Church.

February 23, 1905, Mr. Wright wedded Mise Ina Barber, aughter of George Barber, of Pipestone, Minnesota. The ne child of this union is a son, C. Frank, Jr.

JAMES KARL GRUBB, who is, in 1922, the efficient mayer i the Village of Bolivar, Jefferson County, was born in lis town, on the 14th of July, 1884, and is a son of Capt. ames W. Grubb, who was born on a farm in Londenn County, Virginia, and who was a son of Ifon. John Grubb, je latter having represented that county in the Virginia legislature in the '40s. In this conncetien it is interesting ) recerd that when this early legislater returned home rom the fair old capital city of Richmend he brought with im an equestrian statue mounted on a platform and resented the same to his son James W. ag a plaything, ais ancient relic being new in the possession of the subject f this sketch, who places high valuation on it.

John Grubb was born near Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and is supposed that his father likewise was born in that ounty, the latter having thence removed to Lendenn County, 'irginia, where he purchased a tract of land that was a art of the Lord Fauquier grant, the deed to the property, ow in the possession of James K. Grubb, of this review, howing that for this land two pounds, two shillinga and a ixpence an aere were paid. John Grubb succeeded to the wnership of a part of this landed estate, and there he ontinned his aetivities as an agriculturist until his death. [is sens Hiram and William were loyal soldiers of the Confederacy in the Civil war, and thereafter the other mem- vers of the family lost all trace of them. The sona Joseph nd James W. entered the Union army, and thus showed how definitely the Civil war was fratricidal.

Capt. James W. Grubb acquired a really liberal education, nd as a youth of seventeen he became a successful teacher n the scheels of Virginia, one of his pupils having been Tohn Moseby, who later became the commander of the amous Moseby Guerillas, a band that gave effective service n the cause of the Confederacy in the war between the Verth and the South. Soon after the inception of the war fames W. Grubh entered the Union aervice, as a member of Company B, Loudoun Rangers, a command that was at- ached te Cole's Cavalry. He won premetien to the rank of aptain, took part in many engagements and continued his oyal service until the close of the war. While out with lis scouts en one occasion he was captured by a force com- nanded by his fermer pupil, John Meseby, of Meseby's command, who permitted him to escape at night. At the ·lose of the war he established his residence at Bolivar und engaged in active werk as a civil engineer. There he ·ontinned his residence, an honored and influential citizen, until his death, March 5, 1895. The maiden name of his rife was Sally Neer, and she likewise was born in Loudoun County, Virginia, a daughter of George and Amelia (Derry) Neer and a representative of an eld and prominent family of Virginia. The marriage of Captain Grubh was selem- ized in 1864, while he was in camp with his military com- nand. his father having secured for the bride a pass through the lines, this paas being still in the possession of the family. Mrs. Grubb passed to the life eternal on the 9th of April, 1919, her children being four in number, Helen, John H., Beaulah and James K.

The public schools of Belivar afforded James K. Grubb mia preliminary education, and thereafter he continued his studiea beth in New York City and Norfolk, Virginia. At the age of fifteen years he began an apprenticeship to the trade of telegraphist with the Postal Telegraph Com- pany, and two and one-half years later he became a brake- man on the Baltimore & Ohie Railread. He won promotion o the position of conductor, and continued in active railway service until 1909, when he met with an accident that neces- itated the amputation of his right foot. Thereafter he was engaged in the grain business at Harpers Ferry until 1917, when he sold out and became a representative of the Metro- politan Life Insurance Company, with which he has con-

tinued hia connection to the present time, his insurance agency at Bolivar being one of the mest prosperous in his native county. He is a stanch republican in politics. In 1914 he was elected recorder of Belivar Township, and ef thia office he continued the incumbent until 1916, when he was elected mayor of Bolivar, a position which he has since retained through successive re-elections, which have attested the high local estimate placed upen his administration.

June 12, 1904, recorded the marriage of Mr. Grubb and Miss Agnes O'Brien, who was born at Halltown, this county, and who is a daughter of Patrick and Sally (Reid) O'Brien. Her paternal grandparents were Dennis and Margaret ( Treut) O'Brien, beth natives of Ireland. The Trout family, ene of wealth and influence, made objectien to the marriage of Margaret te the young Irishman, whe could elaim neither wealth ner family importance, and the result that came was that the young couple cleped, were married and came to the United States on a sailing vessel of the type commen to the period. They settled in Maryland, and there passed the remainder of their lives. Patrick O'Brien bought a farm near Ifalltown, West Virginia, and there remained until his death. Monsignor James M. O'Brien, his brother, is a distinguished clergyman of the Catholic Church. The names of the children of Patrick and Sally (Reid) O'Brien are here recorded: James W., Virginia, Thomas, Robert L., Edward, Minnie, Agnes, Mary and Rose. Robert L. O'Brien ·graduated from the Baltimore Medical College, and there- after served as an interne in a leading hospital in Washing- ton, D. C., where he married Avie M. Herbert, a trained nurse. He later established himself in the practice of his professien at Akren, Colorado, where he met his death in an automobile accident. His two sons were then taken into the home of his sister, Mrs. Grubb, and they are now attend- ing the public schools of Belivar. Mr. and Mrs. Grubb have ne children of their own, and thus they take the deepest interest in their two fester-sens, Herman F. and Austin P. O'Brien.

GEORGE W. THOMPSON. Frem almest the beginning of consecutive history in the Ohio Valley te the present time, there have been three men named George W. Thompson, representing three consecutive generations, each of them men of more than ordinary distinction and prominence in business or in public affairs.

The first was Judge George W. Thompson, whose career is especially identified with the carly history of Wheeling. He was bern near Wheeling. in Ohie County, Virginia, May 14, 1806. His father was a native of County Armagh, Ireland and married Sarah Talhett, of the same county. On coming to the United States they settled in Ohio County, Virginia, and subsequently moved across the river to Bel- mont County, Ohio. Judge Thempsen therefore, grew to manhood in the country around Wheeling, graduated in 1822 from Jefferson College ef Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, read law at Saint Clairsville, Ohio, with IIon. W. P. Hub- bard, one of Wheeling's greatest lawyers, and was ad- mitted to the bar in 1826. For two years he lived at Richmond, Virginia, then practiced at Saint Clairsville, and in 1837 located at Wheeling. In 1838 he was appointed pestmaster of that eity by President Van Buren, and in 1844 was appointed United States district attorney for the Western Distriet of Virginia by President Polk, filling that office four years. In 1851 he was cleeted to Congress, and while in his first term was chesen judge of what was then called the Superior Court, now the Circuit Court, for the Twelfth Judicial District. He resigned frem Con- gresa to go on the bench and was re-elected in 1860. A former history of Wheeling saya of him: "George W. Thompson, who was the first judge elected by the people, had a long and varied career in the public service. He waa past middle age and had seen many years of public service when the war came en. As a loyal Virginian he was unable to adjust himself to the forcea which were evolving a new state, and being conscientionaly unable to take the oath of allegiance to the restored government he was removed from office in July, 1861. In a charge to a jury during that year he gave instructions to bring in a verdict of treason against defendants refusing to comply

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with the mandates of the State of Virginia. During the remaining years of his life he was retired, and gave much of his time to authorship, dealing with themes of religion and philosophy. He represented Wheeling in the contro- versy over the location of the route of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, was a member of the Virginia-Ohio Com- mission to settle the jurisdiction of these states on the Ohio, and while in Congress he introduced and urged the passage of the bill, which, in opposition to the decree of the Supreme Court, declared the Wheeling suspension bridge not an obstruction to navigation." Judge Thompson died February 2, 1888. In 1832 he married Elizabeth, daughter of Daniel Steenrod, Sr., one of Wheeling's oldest and most prominent citizens. The children of Judge and Mrs. Thompson were: Anne; William P., who became a lawyer at Fairmont; George Western; Sallie; D. S .; and Lewis, who was killed in the Confederate service.

George Western Thompson, of the second generation hearing that name, had much to do with the commercial development of the Ohio Valley, and he was intimately con- cerned with the building of railroads and other enterprises that fortified the commercial prestige of Parkersburg. He was born at Wheeling, June 23, 1845, and had many of Mathias Stuck, above mentioned, was the great-grand- father of the Newburg merchant. He married Nancy Fra- zee, whose father, Thurman Frazee, brought his family from Denmark to the American Colonies before the war of the the intellectual gifts of his father. He completed his edu- cation in Jefferson College in Pennsyliania, and in 1865 removed to Parkersburg. For three years he was employed as a clerk, and in 1868 he and H. C. Jackson hought out a . Revolution and from New York, his first place of settle- wholesale grocery establishment that had been started early ment, moved to New Jersey and finally to Virginia, estab- lishing his home seven miles east of Brandonville, in Pres- ton County, and from there moving over the Maryland line to what is the Frazee community of Garrett County. Thurman Frazee also participated as a soldier of the revolution for seven years. in the Civil war and which is still continued under the ownership of the Dana Company. Mr. Thompson was asso- ciated with this business until 1894. He then retired to look after other important duties. When the Ohio River Railroad Company was organized he was elected vice presi- dent, hut resigned to become general manager of the Ohio The grandfather of W. Frank Stuck, son of Mathias and Nancy (Frazee) Stuck, had an active career as a com- mercial man in Preston County. He was a merchant at Terra Alta at the beginning of the Civil war. His devotion to the Union amounted to a passion, and he became 80 enraged when a detachment of Confederate troops entered the town that, though a civilian, he fired his rifle at them, and for this he was taken prisoner and carried South to be dealt with as his conduct seemed to merit. On the way he was dismounted, tied and stood upon a stump to be shot. His courage did not desert him, and he defied his captors and called them cowards for shooting a defense- less captive. Seeing his doom and resolving upon a last effort to save himself, he made himself known as an Odd Fellow, at which sign the commander stopped the pro- ceedings, ordered him untied, placed him upon a horse and started him hack home. He afterward joined and served in the Union Army. Valley Construction Company, consisting of the capitaliste who built the Ohio River Railroad. In June, 1884, when the road began operating between Wheeling and Parkers- burg, Mr. Thompson resigned from the construction com- pany and in 1885 was elected president of the railroad company. To a large degree the success of that railroad was due to the energy and wise guidance of Mr. Thompson who was exceedingly popular throughout the district served by the road. He was still its president when he died at Washington, D. C., February 26, 1895. Though always identified with important business and public enterprises, he was naturally of a retiring disposition, and his happiest hours were spent in his home with his family and friends. Kindliness was his distinguishing trait, and he was exceed- ingly charitable to those who needed his help. He was a member of the Episcopal Church, and was affiliated with the Masonic Order and Independent Order of Odd Fellows.

In 1869 he married Fannie Belle Jackson, daughter of General John J. Jackson, of the distinguished West Vir- ginia family of that name. The children of George W. Thompson II were: Jane Jackson, wife of Preston Brooks Tobin; Elizabeth S., who married Charles S. Pearcy; George W., third; Frances Belle, whose first husband was Nelson Young, and she is now the wife of Louis Schirmer; and Anna Camden, wife of Walter Henry Gerwig.

George W. Thompson, III, was born at Parkersburg, November 29, 1880. He was educated in his native city and attended the Lawrenceville Preparatory School in New Jersey. After leaving school he had three years of ex- perience as a reporter with the Pittsburgh Leader, and for another three years had charge of the insurance depart- ment of the Citizens Trust & Guaranty Company of Park- ersburg. Since 1907, Mr. Thompson has had the increasing responsibilities in connection with the Standard Oil Com- pany's interests at Parkersburg. He is now superintendent of the Camden Works of this corporation. Mr. Thompson is a member of the Episcopal Church.

October 19, 1912, he married Miss Anna Mehen. Their two children are Nancy and George W. IV.

W. FRANK STUCK has been a resident of Preston County throughout the half century of his life, is a well known merchant at Newburg, and while his career has been chiefly concerned with civilian grouping of affairs, he has some

of the sturdy traits and courageous spirit that have marked his ancestors. His Americanism is featured by several an. cestors who have been in the wars of this nation from the time of the Revolution.

His first American ancestor was John Stuck. Johr Stuck was born in Germany, in a town of which his father was burgomaster. The family was introduced to Germany by an immigrant from Palestine of Jewish blood. Johr Stuck has a brother, Henry, but there is no record that he came to America. John Stuck arrived in this country just before the outbreak of the Revolutionary war. He was then a youth and had left Germany to evade compulsory military training. However, he was not a pacifist, since in a few years he joined heartily with the Colonists in their struggle for independence, and was with the Colonial armier five years. After the revolution, he married a woman of English and Dutch ancestry. They had four sons and two daughters, and that generation hecame somewhat widely scattered, John going to Indiana, Peter to Kentucky, while Jacob and Mathias remained near the old homestead in Somerset County, Pennsylvania. By a second marriage John Stuck had three other children.

A son of this stanch Unionist was John E. Stuck, for many years an honored merchant at Newburg. John E. Stuck was born at Terra Alta in August, 1847. He left school, and without his father's consent on March 24, 1864, joined the Union forces in Company E, of the Sixth West Virginia Cavalry, under Col. R. E. Fleming. He remained in service until the close of the war and was then sent west with his company to the Indian border. He received his honorable discharge at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, May 26, 1866, as a result of General Order No. 33. He then returned to West Virginia, was in the Baltimore & Ohio Railway service for a time, and later a railroad man in Texas. On coming back from the Southwest he was for a period clerk in a store at Newburg and then engaged in business for himself there. In his later years he was book- keeper and buyer for the large and well known mercantile firm of Allen & Ellis, and continued in their service until his death on February 27, 1886, the result of a fall on the 14th of that month. John E. Stuck was active in local politics, always a republican, member of the Board of Edu- cation of Lyon District, was past grand chancellor of the Knights of Pythias of the state, and widely known as a gifted speaker and debater in politics and in fraternal affairs. He was very much interested in Sunday School work as a member of the Methodist Church, and the cause of public education found in him one of its choicest sup- porters.

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John E. Stuck married Clarissa Adaline White, who was brn March 12, 1849, and died October 16, 1914, being Inid ) rest beside her husband at Newburg. Her parents vre Thornton T. and Catherine (Stoyer) White. The hildren of John E. Stuck and wife were Etta M., born uly 27, 1869, now Mrs. W. R. Stewart, of Fisher, Penn- .Ivania; W. Frank; John Earnest, born March 16, 1875, ned unmarried January 23, 1896; Mida Belle, born August 1878, n resident of Newburg; James A., born June 25, ,81, a locomotive engineer for the Baltimore & Ohio Rail- ay at Newburg; Howard P., born August 16, 1883, is altimore & Ohio station agent at Oakland, Maryland; and aura Emma, born November 11, 1885, died May 10, 720, the wife of G. T. Silcott.

W. Frank Stuck was born nt Newburg, September 21, ,71, and as a boy he acquired a public school education. romi 1586 to 1×93 he elerked in a store, then entered busi- ss for himself as a general merchant, sold out in 1898, nd, going to the Pacific Coast, was for five years a travel- ig salesman with headquarters at Seattle, representing "inship Brothers, wholesale grocers. Returning home in 003, Mr. Stuek for a brief time resumed his work as a erk at Newburg, and then again went on the road as a alesman, a vocation he followed until 1915. Since that ear he has been building up and extending a prosperous usiness as a hardware and builders' supplies dealer. He one of the original stockholders of the First National bank of Newburg, is a stockholder in the Winehester Re- eating Arms Company, and was an original stockholder nd is vice president of the West Virginia Drilling and development Company, which has done considerable devel- pment work in the oil and gas territory.

Mr. Stuek served one term as president of the Board f Edueation of Lyon Distriet, and during that time sev- ral new schoolhouses were erected. He has put forth bis fforts constantly for general improvement, is a stanch publiean in politics, easting his first vote for Benjamin [arrison for president, and has been a member of a num- er of conventions, including the first convention at Wheel- ng, when the noted Charles Swisher figured as a candidate. n more recent years politics has been an after considera- on with Mr. Stuek, though he has never failed to vote and ceording to his party faith. He is one of the oldest ten f twelve surviving members of Grafton Lodge No. 308, ·enevolent and Protective Order of Elks. While not a member, he believes in the good work of churches and ives them his financial support.

At Newburg. September 20, 1903, Mr. Stuck married Iiss Arlina G. Menefee, daughter of John W. and Ruhama Hanshaw) Menefee. Her father spent his life as a West irginia farmer on York's Run near Newburg and died the village of Newburg in January, 1891. Mrs. Stuek as born June 3, 1871, and the other children of her par- nts were Belle, Frank and Mollie, wife of E. E. Rush of Winchester, Virginia. Mr. and Mrs. Stuck have one daugh- r, Mildred Virginia, who graduated from the Masontown ligh Sehool in 1922.

JOHN F. CROGAN. In a life of seventy years, John F. rogan has justly earned the reputation of having been ne of the most effectively useful and publie spirited eiti- ns of Lyon Distriet in Preston County. By hard work provided for those dependent upon him, thus achieving s primary ambition, but at all times he has manifested a en and generous interest in the welfare of others and has orked in behalf of schools, better roads and other faeili- es that represent the advance and progress of the times. His father, James Crogan, was a native of Ireland, mar- ed after coming to the United States, and as a laborer nployed on railroad construction followed the westward ogress of the Baltimore & Ohio through West Virginia to Preston County. His first home here was at the west d of the tunnel, near Tunnelton, later at a point just low Austen, and after many years as a wage worker he ught a farm on Raccoon Creek, where he lived until his ath. He had a limited edueation, and found means of aking himself useful, always voted the democratic tieket, it sought none of the honors of polities. He married Rose Vol. II-57

Doyle, who died in October, 1897, and they were the par- ents of four aona and one daughter.

John F. Crogan, the second child, was born at the west end of the tunnel, near Tunnelton, October 31, 1851. He spent most of his youth on the farm near Raccoon Creek. He attended school at Newburg, the Concord country school, and when he left home he became tenmster about saw mills, an occupation he followed for eight years. After that he resumed farming, then for two years drove a team in the oil distriet below Fairmont, and after that experienee his time and energies were faithfully devoted to farming. In 1888 he bought the farm where he had his home and the center of his activities until the beginning of 1922.

Mr. Crogan on reaching manhood chose the republican instead of the democratic party of his father, voting for General Grant in 1872, and for fifty years has steadily cast his ballot according to his first choice. Mr. Crogan was chosen a member of the county court in 1904 ns the eom- missioner from Lyon District, succeeding Commissioner Burgoyne. When he went on the court the other members were Emanuel Dixon, chairman; James C. White, P. S. Knotts, Thomas Ryan, Jehu Jenkins, P. J. Knapp and Com- missioner Strawser, and other members who came on the board later were John E. Jenkins, W. F. Menear and Har- rison Zinn. Some money was then being spent making new roads and repairing old ones, building bridges, but no per- manent road bed was yet on the program for Preston County. At the present time Mr. Crogan still has official interests in roads, being in charge of certain road work and maintenance in Lyon Distriet. He is also overseer of the poor for that district.

His fellow citizens perhaps best appreciate his public service as a member of the district hoard of education. He was on the board with Rev. Mr. Ingle, Dr. Frank Fortney and Ashford Moore, secretary of the board. During his ineumbency, the new high school of Newburg was begun, attention was paid to improved teaching facilities and the seeuring of better qualified teachers, and a generally higher standard of school work. Mr. Crogan retired from the board in July, 1921, closing a publie service which reflected eredit upon his efforts to give the best of his ability to his duty.

In Preston County, December 9, 1875, Mr. Crogan mar- ried Miss Franees Wilson, daughter of Eugenus and Julia Ann (Jeffreys) Wilson, her mother being a daughter of Thomas Jeffreys. Mra. Crogan was born at the old point known as Denver in Reno District, August 22, 1855, being one of thirteen children, named as follows: Alpheus Wil- son; Margaret, who married John Myers; Melissa, who was the wife of George Fortney; Amanda, who married Isiah Bolyard; Adaline, who married Irvin Shaw; Eugenus ; Semantha, who was the wife of John Spring; Mrs. Crogan; Columbus, who died as a young man; John, a resident of Fairmount; Sarah, who married Jacob Bolyard; Greenland, a earpenter at Pittsburgh; and Gideon, who died in child- hood.

Mr. and Mrs. John Crogan have reared a fine family of children and have a number of grandehildren, most of them living near this venerable couple. Addie, wife of Thomas Pyles, a farmer near Newburg, is the mother of Rose, Agnes, Edward, Frances, Nellie and Lloyd. The oldest son, Hubert, is a young attorney at Kingwood, who married Hazel Snyder, and they bare a son, Patrick Richard. Lloyd, whose home is nt Hiawatha, Utah, married Catherine Clark and has a son, Frederick. Bessie, of Newburg, widow of Morgan Bell, has two sons, Charles and Morgan. Walter, a locomotive engineer on the Baltimore & Ohio between Grafton and Cumberland, married Martha Shelton and has a son, Dorsey. The youngest of the family, John Dewey, was in the Students' Army Training Corps at Morgantown, and is now finishing his education in Toledo, Ohio.

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History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 2, Part 164

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