History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 2, Part 165

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JOHN LAWRENCE HECHMER graduated in law and began the practice of hia profession at Grafton in 1876. Sub- sequent service has brought him a high position in the bar of the state, and no less in the public spirited citizenship of the community.

He was brought to Grafton when he was five years old

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from Baltimore, where he was born December 8, 1855, son of Louis and Dora (Dreher) Hechmer, the former a native of Bonn and the latter of Bremen, Germany. Louis Hech- mer was with the forces of the Prussian government during the revolution of 1848, fighting such men as Schurz and Kunkel, but his sympathies were with them, and as soon as he was released from the army he came to the United States, and was married in Baltimore. He had learned the trade of machinist in the Krupp factories of Germany, and he became a machinist for the Baltimore & Ohio, first at Baltimore and then in the shops at Grafton. After leav- ing the railroad he was a hotel man at Grafton until he retired. He died in Detroit, Michigan, in 1902, at the age of eighty-two, and his wife died a year later in the same city. They had three sons: John L., Frank, of Youngs- town, Ohio, and George, of Grafton.

John Lawrence Hechmer was reared in Grafton, attended private schools, finished his literary education at George- town University, near Washington, and took his law course in the University of Michigan. From the time he was ad- mitted to the bar at Grafton in 1876, he has always prac- ticed alone and for many years he was one of the busiest lawyers of the city, and still looks after a large general practice. He is a member of the local and state har asso- ciations and the American Bar Association.

Politics has been only incidental to his profession. In 1876, though he was not qualified by age to vote that year, he made some campaign speeches for Samuel J. Tilden, but before the next general election he decided to act with the republican party, casting his ballot that year for James A. Garfield, and has been stanch in the same party faith since then. He has been a member of the Grafton City Council and for one term was mayor. He is a Knight of Columbus and is president of the local branch of the National Council of Catholic Men.

In Taylor County, November 25, 1878, Mr. Hechmer married Josephine Luethke, daughter of Henry Luethke and a native of Taylor County. She died in 1889, leaving three children : Frances, wife of Peter Dooman, of Parkersburg, and mother of three children, named John, Miriam and Nancy Dooman; John Hechmer, who is in the coal business at Grafton; and Mary, a sister in the Visitation Convent at Parkersburg. In June, 1890, at Grafton, Mr. Hechmer married Anna Luethke, also a native of Taylor County. Of the children born to this union, Adrienne J. has spent several years in the Government service and is now con- nected with the London, England, offices of the United States Shipping Board. Antoinette D., a graduate of George Washington University, is a Washington attorney, associated with C. R. Marshall and Charles E. Bell, special- izing in interstate commerce litigation. Arthur B. volun- tered early in 1917, was put on special duty, and was in overseas service from January, 1918, until the close of the war. As an ex-service man he has a Knight of Columbus scholarship in West Virginia University, being a member of the class of 1923. Bernadine and Petronelle are students in Pierce Business College at Philadelphia. Charles was formerly a seaman in the merchant marine. Rosemary is a student at Parkersburg, and Edward L. is attending school at Westchester, Pennsylvania.

ROBERT RENWICK VAUGHAN, M. D., is county coroner in Logan County, and has an extensive professional business as physician in charge of the mine practice at the Dehue Mine of the Steel & Tuhe Company of America, the Thur- mond Coal Company's mines at Dabney and the Argyle Coal Company at Yokum. These mines are on Rum Creek, and the doctor's home is at Dehue.

Doctor Vaughan was born at Lobelia, Pocahontas County, West Virginia, December 22, 1881, son of Henry Mason and Miriam Nancy (Walton) Vaughan. His father was born near Lewisburg in Greenbrier County, this state. The grand- father, Joshua Burwell Vaughan, came from Lynchburg, Virginia, and acquired a tract of unbroken land near Lewis- burg, and cleared it up and developed a farm. While getting his land into condition he engaged in the work of hauling goods from Lynchburg with a six-mule team and also trading large quantitise of the output of the salt works.

During the Civil war he was a teamster in the Souther army. Henry Mason Vaughan was born in 1854, and spen his life as a farmer. He is a member of the Methodis Episcopal Church, South, and a democrat. Mrs. Vaugha died May 2, 1921. His surviving children are: Dr. Ray mond, a farmer; Joseph Lake, associated with the Loga Mercantile Company at Logan; Leonard A., employed a Rossmore by the Logan Mining Company; Milton D., on th home farm; Orlenna Susan, a teacher at Holden in Loga County and wife of Edward Clevenger, an employe of th United States Coal and Oil Company. Another son, Fores B., was a conductor on the Iron Mountain Railway and wa accidentally killed at Pine Bluff, Arkansas.

Robert Renwick Vaughan grew up in Pocahontas County where he attended public school, was a student in th Hillburn Academy and in the Dunsmore Business Colleg at Staunton, Virginia. Still later he attended the Universit of West Virginia two years. He taught four terms of schoc in Pocahontas County, and by teaching and at other wor paid his way through school. His medical education wa acquired in Grant University at Chattanooga, Tennessee which he entered in 1902 and from which he graduated il 1906. He stood second in his class all the way through medical college. He passed the examination of the Wes Virginia State Board of Medical Examiners and was firs located at Richwood, as physician for the Cherry Rive Boom and Lumber Company in Nicholas County for three years. Following that he was a physician for the Lon River Colliery Company at Page on Little Loup Creek. I 1909 he came to Logan County as physician for the U. S Coal and Oil Company at Holden, and looked after the duties arising from this position for six years. In 1916 h removed to Dehue, where his practice has been described.

On July 1, 1914, he married Dixie Cook. daughter o A. H. Cook, of Wyoming County, West Virginia. The tw children born to their marriage are Mary Katharine an Lillian Nancy. Doctor Vaughan has been a student sine graduating in medicine as well as before. and possesses mor than ordinary ability in surgery. He did a great deal o hospital work at Holden, and was also associated with : hospital at Richwood. West Virginia, for three years. H. is a member of the Knights of Pythias and Elks, and is : very decided democrat.

KARL H. TRIPPETT, M. D. A former physician and sur geon at Buckhannon, then a medical officer in the army bot] in this country and in France, Doctor Trippett after his re turn joined his younger brother in practice at Grafton where both of them are known as accomplished surgeons.

The Trippetts are one of the oldest families of the state Several brothers established their homes near Morgantown in Monongalia County, about the time of the Revolutionary war. Three of the brothers were soldiers in that struggle and two of them are believed to have been killed in battle Doctor Trippett is a descendant of the survivor. Docto Trippett's grandfather became a farmer in Calhoun County and during the Civil war he and two of his sons werd Confederate soldiers under Stonewall Jackson. He died on his farm near Brooksville about 1882, at the age of eighty-five. His wife was a Miss Lowe, and their children were: Philin, who was a southern soldier and a farmer nea: Sycamore, West Virginia; Henrietta. who married Johr Miller. of Smithville, this state; Caleb after his service a: a soldier became a noted Methodist minister and educato in the state; Frank, the other soldier of the Confederacy was a physician practicing at Jordan. New York, and now a resident of Syracuse, New York; Marshall M., a Method ist minister who lived in Calhoun County; Mrs. Rebecca Ramsay, of Calhoun County; Milton, who was a farmer ir Calhoun County; and Lemuel H.

Lemuel Harrison Trippett was born in Calhoun County April 24, 1860, and was liberally educated. being an A. B graduate of the University of West Virginia. He taught school in Calhoun County and in summer normals, and was then engaged in merchandising until 1890. when he was elected county clerk of Calhonn County, and office he filled two terms of six vears each. While in office he was choser cashier of the Calhoun Connty Bank, but subsequently re-

R. C. Vaughan MR.

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igned and moved to Buckhannon to secure the advantages of that college city for his children. In Buchannon he was Associated with the Peoples Bank, the Buckhannon Bank und the Traders National Bank, and conducted an extensive eal estate business, representing the local interests of the New York Life Insurance Company. His lands in Calhoun 'ounty proved to be rich in oil.

Lemuel 11. Trippett is a democrat in politics. lle married Misa Blanche Stump, who was born at Stumptown in Gil- ner County, and was reared at Stumps Mills, a property belonging to her father, Salathiel Stump, who was a suc- ·essful farmer and lumberman, proprietor of the mills, he store and the hotel, which constituted the chief assets of the village. L. H. Trippett and wife had only two children, Dr. Karl H. and Dr. Lemuel H., Jr., now asso- ·iated in practice at Grafton.

Karl H. Trippett was born on his father's farm in Cal- loun County, April 7, 1886. After the public schools he was a student one year in Marshall College, then in the Wesleyan College at Buckhannon and in 1907 entered the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Baltimore, where he completed the course and received the degree in medicine in June, 1911. He served as assistant superintendent of Merey Hospital at Baltimore a year, when he returned to Buek- hannon and was busy in his private practice there until he went into service.

He was a volunteer for the medical corps, was commis- sioned a first lieutenant, and in 1918 was called to duty at Camp Greenleaf, Chickamauga, Georgia, and a month later to Base Hospital No. 123 at Camp Greene, Charlotte, North Carolina. Just before going abroad he was at Camp Mills, Long Island, and crossed the Atlantic on the Adriatic, landing at Liverpool and thence to Havre. In France he was stationed at Marne-sur-Allier, at the largest hospital center in France, having sixteen base hospitals in that area. Some time after the signing of the armistice he was granted leave of absence for a course in surgery in the University of Lyons, where he remained from March to July of 1919. He was then made one of the officers in charge at the segregation hospital for venereal diseases, and continued on duty until September 18, 1919, when he sailed from Brest on the Agamemnon, landing at New York. He was discharged at Camp Dix, New Jersey, October 15, 1919, and on the following day joined his brother in Grafton, where they have been associated in general practice and also as surgeons on the staff of the City Hospital.

His brother, Dr. Lemuel H. Trippett, was born at Grants- ville, Calhoun County, April 17, 1896, graduated A. B. from the Wesleyan College at Buckhannon and received his de- gree from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Bal- timore in 1918. For a year following he was resident phy- sician at St. Joseph's Hospital in Baltimore, and then opened the office in Grafton which he and his brother now occupy.

At Buckhannon, August 16, 1916, Dr. Karl Trippett mar- ried Miss Willard Farnsworth. She was born in that col- lege town and finished her education there. She is a daugh- ter of Thomas O. and Nora (Trowbridge) Farnsworth, her mother representing one of the old and prominent families of Preston County. Dr. and Mrs. Trippett have one son, Karl Harrison, who was born October 4, 1918, while his father was in France.

Doctor Trippett is a member of the Upshur County 1Ios- pital Society, belongs to the professional fraternity Chi Zeta Chi, and is affiliated with the Masons, Odd Fellows, Knights of Pythias, Elks, Moose and Red Men. He is a democrat, while his brother is a republican. He is a mem- ber of the Andrews Methodist Episcopal Church, the Graf- ton Chamber of Commerce, and Grafton Post No. 78, Amer- ican Legion.

JOHN CALVERT. Now retired at Independence, John Cal- vert has a long retrospeet of life, including a useful service as a Union soldier in the Civil war, many years of sturdy devotion to a mechanical trade, later to merchandising, and in all the years his associates have appreciated his honesty, his integrity and his reliability.

He was born at Greensboro, Pennsylvania, January 28,

1846, but since he was three years of age his life has been spent in West Virginia. llis father, Noah Calvert, was a native of Pennsylvania, in early life was a glass blower, and after leaving that trade became a farmer. lle lived for a quarter of a century in Monongalia County, where he died in April, 1876. llis wife was Mary Sullivan. Her father was a native of Germany and lived to the age of 102 years, while his daughter, Mary, lacked only six months of attaining the same age. She died in 1914 and is buried in Monongalia County. They were the parents of eleven children: David, who as a young man went to Illi- nois and later went further West; Margaret, who married Michael MeLaughlin and died at Walkers Station in West Virginia; Naney, who married Thornton Johnson and died at Point Marion, West Virginia; Sophia, who was the wife of Clark Morris and also died at Point Marion; Philip, who lived as a farmer in Tyler County; Jolin; Barney, who died near the old family homcatead in Monongalia County; Permelia is the wife of Luke Durrell and lives at Pittsburgh; Christiann, who died in Monongalia County, the wife of Richard Johnson; Marinda, wife of Grant Wright, of Morgantown; and Mary, wife of Benjamin Davis, of Morgantown.

John Calvert left the home of his parents when he was ten years of age and grew up in the home of a neighbor. All his sehooling was compressed within seven months of school attendance. As a boy he served an apprenticeship in a blacksmith shop and when past seventeen years of age, and about the time West Virginia was admitted to the Union, he enlisted in the Union Army, in Company I of the Fiftieth Pennsylvania Infantry, under Captain LeVann and Colonel Broom. His regiment was part of the Ninth Army Corps of the Potomac. His first important battle was March 18, 1864, when the Confederates drove his regiment out of its works in front of Petersburg. He was in the battle of Hatchers Run and in some of the fighting in the concluding campaigns of the war, and he witnessed the surrender of Lee at Appomattox. His command was then ordered to Washington and was scheduled to go south and support General Sherman against Joseph E. Johnston. The surrender of the latter caused the regiment to be retained at Washington, and there it remained until the Grand Review, when Mr. Calvert was ordered to Harrisburg. Pennsylvania, and mustered out in June, 1865.

On his return home he resumed his trade as a blacksmith at Rosedale, Monongalia County, and in 1872 moved to Preston County and located at Kingwood. While living there his first wife died, and for four years following he worked at his trade in Independence and abandoned it to enter the hardware and undertaking business. After dis- posing of this business he moved to Wetzel County, con- ducted a general store six years, and sinee closing out that business has been practically retired. He then returned to Independence, and abont his only active connection with business today is as a director of the First National Bank of Newburg.

In the election campaign of 1864 the privilege was granted all soldiers of the field of voting, and thus it was that Mr. Calvert had the honor of voting for Abraham Lincoln while in the breastworks in front of Petersburg, though he was not yet nineteen. He thus established him- self in the party faith from which he has found no reason to depart, and in earlier years he attended some local con- ventions and took part in some strenuous campaigns, though never as a seeker for political honors himself. He has been a trustee of the Methodist Episcopal Church of In- dependence.

In Monongalia County, March 28, 1866, Mr. Calvert mar- ried Mias Leann Llewellyn, who was born at Cheat Neck in that county and died in 1877. Mr. Calvert'a children are all by his first marriage: Cora Ella, wife of George Baker, lives at Fairchance, Pennsylvania, and has two chil- dern, George and Elenora; Mary Jane is the wife of Rev. S. K. Arbuthnot, of Buckhannon, West Virginia, and her two daughters are Mary and Virginia; Jasper Newton is an electrician of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and he and his wife, Laura, have a daughter, Margaret; William Franklin, the youngest, is a machinist at Fairmont, and married Bon-

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nie Cunningham. In 1881, at Independence, Mr. Calvert married Mrs. Senath E. Moore. Her mother was Elizabeth Wolf. Mrs. Calvert was born near Independence, was an infant when her father died and her mother bravely took the responsibility of rearing her young children until they could take care of themselves. Mrs. Calvert had a subscrip- tion school education, and for many years her interests and sympathy have gone out to the helpless and needy and she has participated in community work of different kinds. However, she has not been interested in politics, has not availed herself of the privilege of universal suffrage, and is a member of the Methodist Protestant Church.

MALCOLM JUDSON ORR, for many years a farmer and stock man, and more recently a factor in the orchard and horticultural development of the district around Newburg, in Preston County, is a member of a family that had an honorable record in Preston County since the close of the eighteenth century.

The founder of the family and his great-grandfather was John Dale Orr, who came to Preston County in 1798. His sister, Mrs. Davy, was living on Sand Ridge in Preston County, and it was her presence that attracted him to the same locality. In 1798 he left his old home near Union- town, Pennsylvania, and came to his new place on Sand Ridge or Scotch Hill, south of the village of Newburg, where he spent the rest of his life, taking about three hun- dred acres of land that cost him perhaps twenty-five cents an acre. John Dale Orr brought with him his wife and one child, some household goods and cattle. His goods were transported by the old time "drag" method. This drag consisted of two poles fastened together at one end, the horse standing between the other two ends, which served as shafts, and the weight was so distributed as to fall chiefly on the horse. Two ends dragged on the ground, and boards or timbers were tied crosswise on which goods could be transported. There were two of these crude conveyances in the Orr party. Mrs. Orr rode on the back of one of the horses, carrying her daughter in her arms. John Dale Orr died in April, 1840, and his wife, whose maiden name was Elizabeth Johns, died in October, 1853. Their children were: Catherine, born in 1796, married Joshua Fortney and died in Harrison County in 1860; John, born in 1798, lived at the cross roads in the Newburg locality until 1855; when he sold his property to the old O'Donnell Coal Company and then moved to the Masontown locality, where he lived until his death in 1883; Ruth Orr, who was born in 1801 and died in 1885, was the wife of William Menear, and they spent their married lives on the old Menear farm near Scotch Hill; Hiram, was the youngest of the family.

Hiram Orr was born in Preston County in 1804 and died in 1855. He married Keziah Menear, a sister of Susan Menear, who was the wife of his brother. Hiram Orr spent his life at the old John Dale Orr homestead. He never went into politics for his own benefit, but was an old-line democrat and occasionally served as election commissioner. His children were: Uriah Newton; Martha J., who was married in 1859 to Andrew B. Menear and died at King- wood in 1864, leaving two children; Eugenus J., who mar- ried Miss Wathan in 1855 and died in 1868, survived by five children; Morgan D. who married Belle Henry and spent his life at Fairmont as superintendent of the Oral Coal Company; Miles Hiram, who married Miss Ashburn and is a resident of Masontown; Keziah became the wife of S. M. Martin at Reedsville and reared a family of five daughters and two sons; Weightman L. married Carrie A. Pfeil and lived at Baltimore, where he died in 1905.

Maj. Uriah Newton Orr, one of the conspicuous figures in the life and affairs of Preston County for many years, was born at the old homestead on Sand Ridge, April 24, 1832. He was reared to manhood there, and despite the lack of school advantages he acquired a good education, chiefly through his own efforts. At the age of twenty-two he was elected major of the Seventy-third Virginia Militia, and two years later was promoted to lieutenant colonel. Thus he had a considerable experience and knowledge of military tactics when the Civil war broke out. In August, 1861, he joined Company I of the Sixth West Virginia Infantry in

sergeant of his company. He was in a number of skir- mishes at Morefield, Bulltown, South Branch and elsewhere. and served until honorably discharged in November, 1864. the Union Army, and in 1862 was promoted to first duty at the expiration of his term. Major Orr always kept in close touch with his old comrades, was a member of the Grand Army of the Republic and attended all the county reunions.

Following the war he entered the lumber business neal Newburg, in Preston County, and in 1889 removed to Kingwood, where he put up a four-story flour mill. He was a man of strenuous activity, vigorous and determined in everything he undertook, and he kept working until practically the end of his life. He died February 14, 1916 at the venerable age of eighty-four. He was progressive a useful citizen, and accumulated an abundant prosperity. In politics he was an enthusiastic republican. He cast his first presidential vote in the campaign of 1856 for Millard Fillmore, a candidate of the American or Knownothing party, but in 1860 he supported Abraham Lincoln and never deviated from that party and its principles the rest of his life. He was an influential man in local politics, and in 1876 was elected a member of the Board of Edu- cation of Lyon District, becoming its president two years later, and filled that post for eight years. In 1881 he was elected to represent Preston County in the House of Dele- gates, was re-elected in 1883, and after an interval of four years was returned to the House in 1889. He served on some of the most important committees and rendered a distinctive service to the state and his home county. In later years he was mayor of Kingwood.

In 1860 Major Orr married Miss Annie Amelia. She died in 1864, while her husband was in the army, leaving two sons, Robert A. and Malcom J. In 1867 Major Orr married Mollie J. Squires, daughter of Samuel Squires. She died in 1912, when they had been married forty-five years. The children of this marriage were: Mattie J., wife of G. W. Robinson, of Kingwood; Agnes A., wife of John B. Ford, an operator and superintendent in the Fair- mont coal district; James Morgan in the coal business at Clarksburg; Grace, wife of Samuel B. Montgomery, of Kingwood; Edward U., a resident of Kingwood and mar- ried Miss Laura Stone; Clarence, formerly manager of a coal company in the Philippine Islands, and still in the coal business in one of the Rocky Mountain states; Carrie, wife of Noble Montgomery, of Tunnelton; Nellie, Mrs. Charles Allen of California; and Uriah N., Jr., now a druggist at Kingwood, was one of the first young men in Preston County to enlist, volunteering at Pittsburg, and went over- seas with the expeditionary forces and saw some of the real fighting in France.

Malcom Judson Orr, who represents the fourth genera- tion of this family in the Newburg vicinity, was born at Independence, West Virginia, May 28, 1863. He was reared near Newburg, attended common schools, and his first experience on the farm gave him the knowledge and opened the opportunities for what has been his permanent vocation. For a time he was associated with his father in the development of a coal property. He also spent about two years, 1905-08, at Gainesville, Florida, in the real estate business, contributing of his efforts toward colonizing that region with northern men to engage in the fruit and truck industry. With these exceptions Mr. Orr has devoted his time to farming and stock raising, and after returning from Florida began developing one of the most promising orchard properties in Preston County. He planted an orchard of 600 trees, principally the Starke Delicious, York Imperial and Rome Beauty apples. His fruit farm has a north exposure on a branch of Raccoon Creek, and the orchard is just coming into profitable bearing and it constitutes Mr. Orr's principal business interest now.

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History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 2, Part 165

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