History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 2, Part 190

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Clark S. Fortney acquired his early advantages in the rural schools of Preston County. For eight yeara he taught in the country districts of that county and subsequently en- tered the Maryland Medical College at Baltimore, where he graduated M. D. in 1905. While in college he was a member of the Phi Chi college fraternity. Dr. Fortney did post- graduate work, specializing in diseasea of children and of the stomach, at the New York Post Graduate School in 1916 and in 1919. After graduation he located at Hundred in Wetzel County in 1905, and in addition to hia extensive medical and surgical practice in that community he has served as city health officer, is a member in good standing of the Wetzel County, State and American Medical Associations, and was liberal with his professional abilities, time and money in sup- port of all patriotic measures during the war. Dr. Fortney is a republican and ia affiliated with Hundred Lodge No. 84, Knighta of Pythiaa.

Mrs. Fortney, whom he married at Washington, D. C., in 1905, was before her marriage Dr. Mary J. Fansler, daugh- ter of William L. and Ruth M. (Morrison) Fansler. Her father was a farmer and cattleman of Preston County, and aerved as constable of Union District a number of years.

W Farley

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Mrs. Fortney is a graduate physician from the Keokuk Medi- cal College at Keokuk, Iowa.

SANFORD J. TALKINOTON is a native West Virginian and has been a resident of Wetzel County over thirty-five years. During that time he has become a recognized leader in the liveraified agricultural enterprises of the country around Hundred, and from the farm his interests have extended to he town, where he is president of the prosperoua Bank of Hundred.

Mr. Talkington was born in Marion County, Weat Vir- ginia, August 24, 1855. His father, Alexander Talkington, was born in Pennsylvania in 1804, moved to Marion County when a young man, married there and set up a pioneer blacksmith ahop. His akill at this trade made him a very useful member of the community, and he lived there until is death in 1858, at the comparatively early age of fifty- our. He was a democrat in politics and a member of the Baptist Church. Alexander Talkington married Mary Johnston, who was born in Pennsylvania in 1814, and sur- rived her husband forty years. She died at the home of her Jon in Hundred in 1898. Sanford waa the twelfth and young- st child of hia parenta. Lucinda, the oldest, became the wife of George L. Furbee, a farmer, and both died at Man- ington, a large part of the modern city of that name being built on the old Furbee farm. Hannah became the wife of Jackson Efaw, a minister of the Baptist Church, and both ire now deceased, she passing away in Monongalia County. Elizabeth died as a young woman. William died in Preston County. Margaret, who died in Greene County, Pennayl- vania, at the age of seventy-five, was the wife of Shelby Cumberledge, a farmer atill living in Monongalia County. Elvira lives at Centerville, Appanoose County, Iowa, widow of Aaron Crosa, who was a farmer and died in Oregon. Albert is a farmer in Monongalia County.

Sanford J. Talkington waa three years old when his father died, and in 1866 his mother moved to Monongalia County, and he remained with her and had an increasing share of the abors of ber farm until he was twenty-four. He finished hia education in the country achools of Monongalia County and ar six years combined farming with teaching. When Mr. Talkington came to Wetzel County in 1885 he located on the arm which he owns and occupies today, a mile and a half east of Hundred. Hia farm comprisea & hundred twenty- seven acres and has been made the scene of some very auc- cessful diversified farming. He haa a modern home and thoroughly up-to-date outbuildings, his place being on the State Road, between Hundred and New Freeport, Penn- sylvania.

Mr. Talkington was one of the founders of the Bank of Hundred in 1903, and except for two years haa been preai- dent of the institution from the beginning. It is a bank that has grown and prospered, and its capital stock is now worth more than double the par value. Mr. Talkington was deputy assessor of Wetzel County from 1908 to 1916, and at all times has been deeply interested in community affairs, and during the World War bore his share of the burden both finan- cially and in active leadership in promoting the cause of the Government. He ia a democrat, and a trustee of the Met- hodist Episcopal Church.

In 1884, in Monongalia County, where she was born, he married Miss Margaretta Maple, daughter of John and Catherine (Throckmorton) Maple, now deceased. Her father was a farmer. Mr. and Mrs. Talkington became the parenta of seven children: Nora, who died at the age of four months; Miss Sadie, a teacher in the public schools of Hundred, who finished her education in the Fairmont State Normal School; Ida, twin sister of Sadie, housekeeper for her parents; Bertha L., wife of James A. Sanney, owner of a farm adjoining the Talkington homestead; Clarence, who grad- uated from the Clarksburg Business College and is a traveling salesman, with home at Cameron, West Virginia; Emma, who died in infancy; and Miss May, a teacher in the achools at Hundred and a member of the class of 1922 at the State Normal School of Fairmont.

JAMES E. DOYLE, former sheriff of Marshall County, ia now engaged in the real estate and insurance business at McMechen, this county, where he is vice-president of the

McMechen Bank. He was born at what is now the village of Benwood, this county, October 3, 1856, a son of William and Rebecca (Piatt) Doyle. The father was formerly identi- fied with river navigation in this section and later was em- ployed in steel milla. He waa venerable in years at the time of his death, which occurred at McMechen. lle waa twelve years of age when the family came to Marshall County, Winchester, Virginia, and his father, Peter Doyle, was one of the first school teachera in the county, hia school having been held in an old brick church and among his pupila having been members of the MeMechen family. He died of small- pox when his son William was about nineteen years old. Mra. William Doyle was born and reared in Ohio County, thia atate, and waa fifty-seven years of age at the time of her death. Of the two children James E., of thia aketch, is the elder, and the younger, Albert W., died at the age of forty yeara.

Jamea E. Doyle attended school until he was fourteen years old and then found employment in the mills of the Wheeling Steel & Iron Company, with which he continued hia alliance from 1871 until 1896, in which latter year he was elected sheriff of Marahall County on the republican ticket. From 1910 to 1914 he served as United States marshal for the Northern District of West Virginia, in which office he likewise made an admirable record. Mr. Doyle attended every republican State Convention in West Virginia from 1884 to 1896, and in political and official lines he has gained a remarkably wide acquaintanceship with leading citizena of the state. He continued his service aa aheriff until 1900, and waa mayor of McMechen in 1903-4, the main issue on which he was elected to thia office being the enforcement of law in the city. He gave a vigorous and effective administration of municipal affaira, brought about the early closing of saloons and a general cleanup of adverse conditions which existed.

Mr. Doyle has been a prominent exponent of the real estate business at McMechen for several years past, and among his operations was the opening of an attractive addi- tion to the city and the improving of several blocks now in the center of the town. He was one of the organizera of the local bank and has been a director of the same from the be- ginning, beaidea which he has been its vice president since 1909. The bank bases ita operationa upon a capital of $60,000 and ita deposita average about $500,000. The insti- tution haa paid regular five per cent cash dividends, besides atock dividenda. Mr. Doyle is actively affiliated with the Masonic fraternity.

At the age of twenty-one years Mr. Doyle wedded Eliza- beth Quigley, who was born in Ohio County, thia atate, a daughter of Andrew Quigley, a brick manufacturer in that county, where he served for many years as justice of the peace. Of the children of Mr. and Mra. Doyle the eldest, William E., a bachelor, and a machinist by trade, died at the age of forty-one years; Earl and Jesse are employed in the ateel mills; Rosella is the wife of Alvin J. Kittlewell, of Mac- Mechen, who ia in the employ of the Baltimore & Ohio Rail- road Company; Carrie ia the wife of Charles B. Dailey, who ja in the employ of the same railroad company; James E., Jr., who remains at the parental home, is employed in a local foundry, he having aerved in the Quartermaster's Depart- ment of the United States Army in the period of American participation in the World war; and Luella is the youngest member of the parental home circle.

THOMAS R. PARK haa attained venerable yeara, and half of hia lifetime has been spent in Parkersburg. He is especially widely known for hia long service in the oil barrel cooperage business with the Standard Oil Company.

Mr. Park was born April 2, 1837, one mile from Creaton, then in Wood now in Wirt County, West Virginia. Hia mother was born in 1800. His father, Joseph Park, was born in 1791, and by trade waa a blacksmith. He was a youthful volunteer for service in the War of 1812, joining Captain Willoughby Morgan's Company and was in every engagement of that command up to and including the battle of Blackrock. He was taken prisoner there, and remained a prisoner of war at Quebec until peace was declared.

Thomas R. Park was a man grown when weatern Virginia was made into the State of West Virginia, and he acquired his education in the subscription and old field achools. For several

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years he taught school as a profession, and at an early period in the history of the petroleum industry he became identified with the cooperage business in the manufacture of oil barrels. In 1878 he removed to Parkersburg, and thereafter for over a quarter of a century was superintendent in charge of the oil barrel and stave business at Parkersburg for the Standard Oil Company.

A quiet and efficient business man, Mr. Park has rather avoided the responsibilities of public office, but he has the distinction of being one of the few surviving delegates to the Constitutional Convention of 1871-72. He was elected to represent Jackson County. He also served one term as justice of the peace. He is a democrat, and he cast his first presidential vote for Stephen A. Douglas in 1860 and has never missed a general election, casting his vote in 1920 for Mr. Cox. He was initiated, passed and raised in Ashton Lodge No. 12 of the Masonic Order at Ravenswood, West Virginia, and bas filled all the offices in the Blue Lodge and has also taken eighteen degrees in the Scottish Rite. He has been a consistent member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, since 1859.

March 25, 1858, at Burning Springs, West Virginia, Mr. Park married Miss Lucretia C. Petty, daughter of William and Margaret (Ball) Petty. The Petty and Ball families are both of Old Virginia stock. Mr. and Mrs. Park have six children: William Van Allen, who married Vera Stuart; Margaret Anna; Alice Elma; Joseph Roger, who married Ora C. Poland; Elizabeth May, wife of E. A. Ingersoll; and Minnie Myrtle.

JOSEPH ROGER PARK, known everywhere among his busi- ness and social companions in Parkersburg as Joe Park, has lived in that city more than forty years, and his active man- hood has been devoted to business with success and honor.

He is a son of Thomas R. Park, prominently known in Parkersburg, and one of the surviving members of the State Constitutional Convention of 1871. Joseph R. Park was born on a farm in Jackson County, West Virginia, November 4, 1864. The first twelve years of his life his home was at Ravenswood, and for two years at Burning Springs. He attended school there, and in the fall of 1878 came to Parkers- burg, where his father became superintendent of the local cooperage interests of the Standard Oil Company. Here he completed his public school education and subsequently attended night school.

Mr. Park at the age of sixteen became an employe of the Standard Oil Company. He left that service to become shipping clerk in a wholesale grocery house, and for fourteen years was identified with the wholesale grocery business. Since then he has conducted a profitable enterprise as s merchandise broker, and is also first vice president of the Wood County Bank. For ten years he was a director of the Traders Building Association.

Mr. Park served a time as a member of the Parkersburg Board of Education, is a stanch democrat, and a member of the Board of Stewards of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. In Masonry he is a Knight Templar and thirty-second degree Scottish Rite and a member of the Mystic Shrine. In 1903 he married Ora Cornelia Poland, daughter of John T. Poland, of Parkersburg. Their two children are Lucretia Virginia, born April 3, 1909, and Joseph Roger, Jr., born September 7, 1913.

EDWIN BRICE THOMPSON, M. D., who is in charge of mine practice for the Cleveland Cliff Iron Company and the Wood Coal Company at Ethel, Logan County, was born at Lore City, Guernsey County, Ohio, on the 20th of October, 1890, and is a son of John A. and Mary A. (Todd) Thomp- son, both likewise natives of Guernsey County and repre- sentative of pioneer families of the Buckeye State. The father became one of the substantial farmers and influen- tial citizens of his native county, where he died in July, 1918, at the age of sixty-nine years, and where his widow still resides on the old homestead farm. Mr. Thompson achieved distinctive success in the breeding and raising of high-grade sheep, cattle and horses, and his authoritative knowledge of values led to his being frequently selected as judge at stock shows and similar exhibitions at county fairs. He was one of the founders and became president

of the Byesville First National Bank, was a member of th Presbyterian Church from his early youth and served as 8 elder in the same, his widow likewise having long been devoted member. William, eldest of their five song, is vie president of the First National Bank at Byesville; Elme is one of the principals in the Thompson Hardware Con pany at Grandville, Ohio; James, a graduate of Wooste University, is agricultural agent of Guernsey County an is associated with his brother Frank in the management c the old home farm on which they were born.

The preliminary education of Doctor Thompson wa gained in the district school near the home farm, and i 1910 he graduated from the high school at Cambridge i his native county. He completed his technical course in th Medical College of Virginia at Richmond. He graduated & a member of the class of 1917, and after receiving his de gree of Doctor of Medicine he gave several months of serv ice at St. Vincent's Hospital, Norfolk, Virginia, where h gained valuable clinical experience. On the 1st of Novem ber, 1917, he came to Logan County, West Virginia, afte having passed examination before the State Board of Med ical Examiners, and he is making here a most excellent rec ord in his profession. He is a member of the Logan County Medical Society, is affiliated with the Benevolent and Pro tective Order of Elks, and is a member of the Presbyterian Church. April 25, 1917, recorded the marriage of Doctor Thompson and Miss Nellie Cronley, daughter of Jamer Cronley, of Frostberg, Maryland, and she is a popular fac tor in the social life of the home community. She servec three years as a nurse at Mercy Hospital, Baltimore, Mary. land.

NAAMAN JACKSON, president of the First National Bank of Logan, which he helped organize, is a lawyer by profes- sion and also made a very successful record as an educator. He is a citizen of well balanced character and ambitions, and has found his best satisfactions in work somehow asso- ciated with the welfare and vital interests of his fellow men rather than in money seeking.

Mr. Jackson was born at Trace in Boyd County, Ken- tucky, November 13, 1873. His grandfather, Richard Jack- son, was a native of Russell County, Virginia, and was an early settler in Lawrence County, Kentucky. Richard Clay- ton Jackson, father of the Logan banker, was born in Law- rence County, Kentucky, grew up in Boyd County, in 1900 moved to Greenup County, and is now living at the Town of Greenup. He is sixty-nine years of age. He married Anne Elizabeth Campbell, who died in 1915. She was a daughter of Nimrod Campbell, formerly of Metz, Marion County, West Virginia. Richard C. Jackson is a member of the Methodist Church and a republican.

Naaman Jackson is the oldest in a family of four chil- dren. His brother John W. was formerly a teacher and is now a resident of Barboursville, West Virginia. Lora Deane has devoted most of her active life to teaching, stud- ied in the Universities of Kentucky and West Virginia, and is now a teacher in the Lincoln High School at Charleston, West Virginia. Inez Ota, who also had some experience as a teacher, is the widow of Charles A. Vinson and lives at Greenup, Kentucky, with her father.

Naaman Jackson acquired his early education in Law- rence and Boyd counties, Kentucky, and set the example for the younger children in the teaching profession. After teaching five terms of school he entered, in 1896, the Na- tional Normal University of Lebanon, Ohio, taught after he left that school, and during 1900-01 completed his legal education in the Huntington Law School at Huntington, Tennessee. After coming to West Virginia he taught in different rural districts, and also taught a private normal school of his own at Effie in Wayne County, where he had many pupils as old or older than himself. He was princi- pal of the Oak Hill School in Fayette County and of the school at Mount Hope. Mr. Jackson has been admitted to the bar in Greenup and Carter counties, Kentucky, and in Logan, Cabell, and Fayette counties, West Virginia. He began practice in 1903 at Aracoma, the little community which subsequently was renamed Logan and is the county seat of Logan County. Mr. Jackson retains a strong liking

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for the practice of law, though after helping organize the First National Bank of Logan in 1906 he accepted the post of cashier, and has been continuously in the service of that nstitution. In February, 1921, he was elected its president.

In 1906, the same year that he became a banker, he mar- ied Julia Yantus Dingess, of Chapmanville, West Virginia, laughter of Allen Dingess. Mrs. Jackson is a member of he Baptist Church. Fraternally Mr. Jackson is affiliated with Aracoma Lodge No. 99, A. F. and A. M., which he served as master two years, is a member of Logan Chapter, R. A. M., Huntington Commandery, K. T., and Beni-Kedem Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Charleston. He is a re- publican in politics.

DON CHAFIN. Logan County's best known citizen is Don Chafin, business man and public official. His abilities have given him an unusual sphere of usefulness from early boy- ocod. He has taught school, been a merchant, is interested in banking and coal operations, has twice filled the office of sheriff, and represents a family that has supplied a number of courageous and capable officiala to the county.

Don Chafin was born on Maribone Creek, near the present site of Kermit, in what was then Logan County but now Mingo County June 26, 1887, son of Francis Marion and Esther (Brewer) Chafin. His mother is now living near Logan, on Island Creek, in a home built by her son Don. Francis M. Chafin, who died in 1903, at the age of fifty- four, was the son of a lieutenant in a Virginia regimeut in the Confederate Army. Francis M. Chafin served as sheriff of Logan County from 1894 to 1898, before Minge County was separated. His brother John was county and circuit clerk for eighteen years, until his death, and another brother, James Chafin, was county clerk of Mingo County from 1896 until his death in 1900. A cousin of Don Chafin was the late Judge J. B. Wilkinson, who for twelve years was prosecuting attorney of Logan County and for twelve years circuit judge, resigning from the bench and dying in 1900. The Chafins came to Logan County from Taze- well County, Virginia.

Den Chafin was the sixth in a family of eleven children. There were four sons. William has been blind for the past four years and lives with his brother Don. John B. at the time of his death was a railroad engineer of the Nor- folk and Western Railroad. James A. died when thirteen years of age.

Den Chafin acquired his early education in the Town of Logan while his father was sheriff, and later at the Din- gess School in Minge County, and also did work in Mar- shall College and took a commercial course in the Mountain State Business College at Parkersburg. He taught his first term at Dingess at the age of fifteen. In the intervals of school teaching he clerked for the firm of Hurst and Per- ainger for eight years. He was employed in the commissary and business offices of the Pearl Coal Company of Fair- mont, and in 1904 joined the business firm of F. P. Hurst at Island Creck for two years. Then for a few months he was associated in business with Alex. Mounts, his brother- in-law.

Mr. Chafin was only twenty-one years of age when he was elected assessor of Logan County, in 1908. In 1912 he was elected for his first term as sheriff. At the close of that term, in 1916, he was appointed county clerk, and in 1920 was again made a candidate for sheriff and elected, beginning his official term January 1, 1921. The efficiency he has exemplified in the conduct of his office is too well known to require comment.

In 1905 Mr. Chafin married Mary Mounts, who was born on Gilbert Creek in Mingo County, daughter of Moses Mounts. Mr. and Mrs. Chafin have six children: James A., Marion Rathburn, Lillie Hazel, Mary Frances, Charlotte Jane and William Al.

Mr. Chafin is affiliated with the Elks Lodge. He was one of the organizers of the Aldredge Coal Company, operating near Logan, also of the Chafin-Jones-Heatherman Coal Com- pany, whose operationa are at Peach Creek. He is a direc- tor and one of the large stockholders in the Bank of Logan, which was established late in 1920, with a capital of $100,-

000, and already has deposits aggregating $1,000,000. He is also a heavy stockholder in the Guyan Valley Bank.

FRANKLIN EARNEST FLOWERA, M. D. A physician and surgeon who has rendered a splendid service in the community of Mannington for a dozen years paat, Dr. Flowers is the aon of an old and well known physician in the same county.

His father was the late Dr. A. J. Flowera, who was born in Marshall County, West Virginia, March 9, 1856. For some years he was a minister of the gospel, later atudied and took his degree in medicine at Weat Penn Medical College, and for many years waa a capable practitioner in the Mannington district of Marion County. He died January 5, 1916. Dr. A. J. Flowers married Sarah Earnest, who was born in Mar- shall County, April 28, 1865, daughter of Henry Earnest and Rebecca Ott. Henry Earnest waa a Union soldier in the Civil war.

Franklin E. Flowers was born while his parents lived in Armstrong County, Pennsylvania, on August 7, 1884. He acquired a public school education, attended the Weat Vir- ginia preparatory medical school, and then entered the Col- lege of Physicians and Surgeons of Baltimore, Maryland, where he was graduated M. D. in 1907. On the same date the University of West Virginia conferred upon him the honorary degree of M. D. Before beginning practice Dr. Flowera had the experience of an interne in the Haskins Hospital at Wheeling for about eighteen months, and after eighteen monthe of practice in Monongalia County located at Mannington. Dr. Flowers ia a member of the Marion County, Weat Virginia State and American Medical Associations. Since April, 1919, he has held the office of president of the Mannington Board of Health. In 1918 he was commissioned a first lieutenant in the Army Medical Corps, but was not called to duty before the armistice was signed. Dr. Flowera is a member of Mannington Lodge No. 31, A. F. & A. M., West Virginia Consistory No. 1 of the Scottish Rite at Wheel- ing, is alao affiliated with the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks, the Knights of Pythiaa, the Mannington Kiwania Club, and ia a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

On September 27, 1906, Dr. Flowere married Miss Ruth Miller. She was born October 8, 1885, at Straaburg, Virginia, and her parenta, John and Laura (Mort) Miller, were also natives of that state. They have one child, Helen B.

JAMES PHILIP CLIFFORD. It requirea the help of no friendly pen to bring to public notice the good citizenship and high professional standing of auch a man aa Jamea Philip Clifford, & representative member of the Clarksburg bar, for his fellow citizens have known him all his life and, commanding their reapect and confidence as neighbors and frienda, he has steadily made his way and has honorably earned hia large measure of professional success.

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History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 2, Part 190

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