History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 2, Part 195

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HON. JAMES W. FLYNN as a banker and business man has been vitally identified with many lines of the fundamental industrial development of West Virginia. His home and many of his interests are centered at Kingwood, he is a native of Preston County, and at this writing represents the county in the legislature.

Mr. Flynn was born'in Lyon District of Preston County March 13, 1861. His grandfather, James Flynn, settled here in 1848, and, like many of the other early settlers, came out of old Virginia. The Flynns for several generations lived in Fauquier County, and more remotely the family came from Ireland. James Flynn on coming to Preston County bought some of the land'now owned and operated by the Austen Coal & Coke Company, and the ten years he lived here were devoted to farming. He was born in 1806 and died in 1858. His life was fitly and industriously spent, and represented a modest contribution to the improvement of the community. He brought his family out of Virginia by wagon over the

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old Northwestern Turnpike through Winchester. He buried his first wife in Fauquier County, and his two sons and five daughters all reared their families and died in Fauquier County except Benjamin Flynn.

Benjamin Flynn was born in Fauquier County, was edu- cated there, and as a young man left his family to enter the Confederate Army as a member of the 20th Virginia Infantry. He was a scout in the mountain sections of Kentucky, Virginia and West Virginia. Following the war he became a furnace man in Lyon District, and at the time of his acci- dental death in 1883 was superintendent of the Irondale Furnace. Benjamin Flynn married Miss Lydia Buncutter, of Winchester, Virginia, daughter of George Buncutter, who spent his life in the Shenandoah Valley. Mrs. Lydia Flynn died in 1869, and the only one of her five children to grow to maturity is James W. Flynn. The second wife of Benjamin Flynn was Miss Mary Montgomery, and she and six of her nine children survive.

James Willoughby Flynn was born at the opening of the Civil war, and the first stories he heard of the world outside of his own home were incidents of the great conflict. He attended the common schools and finished his education in the Wheeling Business College. He had grown up around an iron furnace, and eventually became superintendent of the industry his father conducted at the time of his death. Mr. Flynn in 1889 left the iron business and for three succeed- ing years was & merchant at Kingwood, as a partner of Hon. C. M. Bishop. He left merchandising to become associated with the financial and industrial interests of the syndicate whose two principal figures were Stephen B. Elkins and Henry G. Davis, and he has been more or less associated with this group ever since. He was in their real estate depart- ment and was a cruiser over various coal properties of the Elkins-Davis Company, and gave his time to this and similar work until 1904. Since then he has rather concentrated his energies at Kingwood in the real estate business and banking.

Mr. Flynn organized in 1903 the Kingwood National Bank, with a capital stock of twenty-five thousand dollars, and which now has surplus and capital of fifty thousand dollars. He was elected vice president and since 1914 has been pres- ident. The vice presidents are George A. Herring and C. A. Craig, and the cashier is Ivan Davis. Mr. Flynn is finan- cially interested in the Logan Developments of Logan County, in the Kingwood Stone Company, in the National Fuel Company of Morgantown, and the Deaker Hill Coal Company of Kingwood, and has some important private holdings of his own, which are not yet developed.

Mr. Flynn cast his first presidential vote for James G. Blaine. For sixteen years he was chairman of the Preston County Republican Committee, has been a member of the Senatorial and Congressional Committees, and has served in both branches of the Legislature. In 1908 he was elected to the State Senste, then presided over by Hon. L. J. Fore- man, during the administration of Governor Dawson. His senatorisl district comprised Preston, Tucker, Mineral, Grant and Hardy counties, and he was the unanimous choice of his party for the senatorial nomination. While in the Senate he was a member of the committees on banking, finance, judiciary, and was chairman of the banking committee. His chief interests in the legislation of that session was prohibition and the income tax. He championed the former and was an opponent of the income tax law as then presented to the body, though he favored fifty per cent of the income going to the government of West Virginia. Mr. Flynn was one of the fifteen republican senstors who left the state to keep the democrats from organizing the Senate. One of those fifteen senators has since been governor of the state and another one United States senator from West Virginia. After his senatorial term there followed a considerable interval before he was chosen, in 1920, to the Lower House of the Legislature. He entered the House in January, 1921, under Speaker E. M. Keatley, and has been a member of the finance, banks and banking, mines and mining committees. A project in which he is deeply interested for the welfare of the state as a whole is the development of water power. Hardly second to water power development has been road improvement. He supported the general road measure pro- viding for the connection of all the county seats of the state with permanent highways, and favored the fifty million

dollar bond issue as a revolving fund until the state highwa system is completed. Mr. Flynn also sought to increase th efficiency of the state police force, and whether as a legislat or private citizen he is for law and order first of all. Improve ment of the facilities and advancement of the welfare € locality or state are matters that enlist his co-operation with out solicitation, and his contributions to the practical achieve ments of such objects is commensurate with his ability to pay

Mr. Flynn has a wide personal acquaintance with eminen West Virginians, including Governor White, Governo Dawson and Governor Atkinson, with United States Senator Stephen B. Elkins and N. B. Scott, snd he voted for Scol for United States senator, while he himself was a membe of the State Senate, and also supported Davis Elkins t succeed to the unexpired term of his noted father. He kne Senator Goff, and these and other political leaders of th state met in many conventions. He was campaign manage for this district for Congressman Dayton and for Georg Bowers, who now represents the Second West Virginia Distric in Congress. Mr. Flynn is a Royal Arch Mason and a membe of the Eastern Star.

In Preston County March 6, 1886, he married Miss Anni V. Klauser. Both before and after her marriage her life was one of such service and influence as to require no mem orial of the present generation of Preston County people She was born in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, August 1 1861, and died February 9, 1919. She was granted the firs four year certificate to teach ever issued in Preston County and was a valuable factor in the educational affairs of th county for eight years before her marriage. She was activ in the Presbyterian Church and its various societies, and was deeply concerned in auxiliary war work, and at the time of her death some French orphan children were depend ing upon her for support.

Levi Klauser, father of Mrs. Flynn, was one of Presto County's best loved and most influential characters. H represented a branch of the Pennsylvania Dutch who settle in Pennsylvania in the seventeen hundreds and becami founders of Churchtown, that state, where Levi Klausel was born in 1818. He received the college education which was a matter of tradition in the family and his first calling was that of a civil engineer. From that he entered journalism and one of his first ventures was at Pittsburgh, where he became editor and proprietor of the Pittsburgh Times, subse quently consolidated with the Pittsburgh Gazette. On selling his interests in Pittsburgh Mr. Klauser removed tc Kingwood, West Virginia, and about 1866 founded the Preston County Journal, and remained its proprietor until his death in 1871. He made this the leading paper of the county. His writings were characterized by a sound literary style, and were especially effective in influencing the develop- ment and social improvement of the county. Personally and through his paper he insisted that the people should show a proper civic pride in Kingwood, and that has been accounted as one of the imporant influences in making King- wood a good, clean place in which to live. Levi Klauser was born in an environment of sound ideals, and in his active life he never departed therefrom. He was a republican in politics, was affiliated with the Odd Fellows and Masons, was a member of the Methodist Church, in physique was of medium size and though he lived in Preston County only a few years he enjoyed an immense popularity. He married Caroline Silkknitter, of German ancestry, a family still represented in Greenbrier County, West Virginia. Levi Klauser and wife had two children, and they were reared in a printing office, an environment that gave a practical turn to their education. The son is John R. Klauser, a printer and newspaper man of Indianapolis.

Mr. and Mrs. Flynn had three children, the oldest being Ben L., referred to in the following paragraph. The second, Charles Willoughby Flynn, is an electrical engineer in Logan County, West Virginia, and by his marriage to Miss Ellen Gore has a daughter Martha M. The daughter of Senstor Flynn is Nellie M. now the wife of Russell C. Burnside, of Kingwood.

Benjamin L. Flynn, who died of the influenza at Logan, West Virginia, November 1, 1918, was then thirty-two years of age, yet his effici ncy in his profession and his talent for business had enabled him to create a modest fortune in less

John Foster

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tan a decade of activity. He was a civil and mining engineer, ling a graduate of the Kingwood High School and the Jternational Correspondence School of Scranton, and began Is active career as a civil engineer during the construction the Morgantown and Kingwood Railway. He became an gineer for the Elkins Coal & Coke Company, and subse- nently established himself in a general engineering practice. hile so engaged he became superintendent for the Logan ining Company at Logan, and was filling that position hen he died. He was a young business man with a very agnetic personality, had a peculiar faculty for handling bor easily and without friction, attracted friends to him bm all walks of life, and was a nature lover, fond of the bods and of all the life and things of natural creation. He rved three years as a member of the West Virginia National uard, and had few equals as a marksman. He stood high Masonry and was a member of the Temple of the Mystic irine at Wheeling. Benjamin L. Flynn married Miss Mamie ilworth, who survived him with three children, James W., ernard E. and Donald J.

CAPTAIN JOHN PORTER. A most unusual and distinguished gure in the business and industrial affairs of the Upper Ohio alley was the late Captain John Porter, who died February

1922. As an estimate of who he was and what he did in he world of affairs nothing better could be said than to repeat he words of an editorial in the Evening Review of East liverpool:

"The East Liverpool District today joins with Hancock, Brooke and Ohio counties, West Virginia, and, in fact, the ntire Ohio Valley, in mourning the death of Captain John Porter, of Kenilworth, West Virginia, originator as well as ioneer in the paving brick industry in the United States. it his home in the West Virginia town he died last night t the age of eighty-three, after a successful career in business nd public life.

"Wherever paving brick is used-and there is not believed o be even a hamlet in the broad expanse of America in which vitrified fire clay is not used for street purposes-the lame of Captain Porter is honored, for he is the oldest paving brick manufacturer in the United States, and it was due to us efforts that brick was adopted for this purpose by munici- palities.

"Captain Porter's success in the business world should encourage ambitious men of the present and future genera- ions. Discouragement on all sides-even ridicule-proved 10 obstacle when his experiments in the manufacture of brick convinced him that vitrified fire clay was adaptable for street paving. He introduced paving brick after members of coun- ils in cities laughed at the idea. But when his arguments failed to win over skeptics he adopted the novel plan of shipping a nominal number of brick to cities to be used in paving a portion of a street for testing purposes. And after each test camc a substantial order. 1

"To Captain Porter belongs the credit for manufacturing the brick used for the first paved street in Wheeling. This was in the early '80s. In 1884 he introduced paving brick in Ohio, his product being used to improve a section of Third Street in the City of Steubenville. And so satisfactory did the vitrified fire clay prove that twenty-six years later-in 1910-authorities of Steubenville forwarded a letter, pointing out that no repairs had been necessary to the portion of the thoroughfare paved with brick from his plan except when the street was torn up to lay pipe or street car lines.

"Not only in commercial affairs did Captain Porter make his mark. He was a familiar figure in the river trade and was a leader in West Virginia politics. He served one term as sheriff of Hancock County and two terms in the West Virginia Legislature, of which one of his four sons, J. Nessly Porter, is now a member.

"The Ohio Valley has suffered a great loss in the death of Mr. Porter."

Captain Porter was born at Martins Ferry, Ohio, August 7, 1838, son of Moses Porter. It was in the early period of his life that he had his experience as an Ohio River man. He operated a line of steamboats and barges on the Ohio and Mississippi between Pittsburgh and New Orleans. He was owner of the steamboat which bore his name and which in 1877 came up the river from Memphis with several of the crew suffering from yellow fever. None of the towns along

the way would permit the boat to land so as to secure medical attention, and the ill-fated barge had its ending near Gal- lipolis, where the disease raged all winter, six persons dying from its effects. When he became a manufacturer of brick the old hand processes were still in use, and it is said that he and his helpers could make about thirty-five hundred brick a day, firing about two kilns a week. The first brick pave- ment laid in any city in America was at Charleston, West Virginia, where building brick was laid on Summers Street in 1871. Although these brick were not so satisfactory as the later vitrified paving brick, they served their purpose for thirty-eight years, and some of these brick are still preserved in the state museum at Charleston. This brick used at Charleston was manufactured and sold hy Captain Porter, and he always took a great deal of justifiable pride in that conception.

On December 7, 1870, Captain Porter married Miss Carrie Mahan. They celebrated their golden wedding anniversary a little over a year before the death of Captain Porter, and Mrs. Porter survives him with four sons and one daughter: Fred G., James Bennett, J. Nessly and Sidney C. Porter, and the daughter is Mrs. Fred B. Lawrence. Captain Porter was also survived by thirteen grandchildren.

In politics Captain Porter was a stanch republican, his first vote being cast for Abraham Lincoln. His service as sheriff of Hancock County was for the term 1891-95. He was twice elected a member of the West Virginia House of Delegates, serving his first term beginning in 1911.

THE GLOBE BRICK COMPANY, one of the largest plants of its kind in the Upper Ohio Valley, is located at Kenilworth, one mile below Newell and about two miles from Liverpool, Ohio. The entire community of Kenilworth is an outgrowth of the brick plant.

This industry was established at Kenilworth by the late Captain John Porter in 1893. In that year he erected the first units of the plant. That was a year of stringent financial conditions, and the hard times following compelled him to sell the property, and it was only irregularly operated until the plant was burned in 1900. Somewhat later Captain Porter again secured the property and in 1906 rebuilt the plant. In 1909 the business was incorporated with a capital stock of $150,000 under the name of the Kenilworth Brick Company. In 1920 this name was changed to the Globe Brick Company, and Captain Porter continued the active head of the business until his recent death. The stock in the company was held by himself and others of his family, including his sons Fred G., James Bennett, J. Nessly and Sidney C. All but James B. are directly interested in the operations of the company, James B. being a director in the company but giving his chief time to the management of his farm near Kenilworth. Since the death of Captain Porter Fred G. has been president and general manager; J. Nessly, secretary and treasurer; and Sidney C., in charge of the mechanical department. The company's property embraces twenty acres, about half of which is covered by the kilns, yards and other operations. The plant has the equivalent of twenty-three standard kilns, each with a capacity of sixty-five thousand brick, and the annual output ranges around twenty-five million brick. The plant has always been operated primarily for the production of paving brick, though a considerable portion of the output is building brick and fire clay brick. The company has about one hundred employes, with a pay roll of about $9,000 per month, while about a similar amount is paid out for coal for fuel. The company also owns the clay under several hundred acres of adjacent land, and this clay is sufficient for three or four generations of continuous operation.

Fred G. Porter, president of the company, like his two younger brothers, grew up in the business, and their exper- ience has given them a practical familiarity with every phase of brick manufacture. Fred G. Porter married Margaret Allison, and their four children are: William Frederick, Richard Allison, Jane Caroline and Robert Grant. Mr. Fred Porter is a prominent Mason, and has taken both the York and Scottish Rite, with all the degrees and orders except the thirty-third in the Scottish Rite, and is a member of the Mystic Shrine. He belongs to all of these bodies in Wheeling, West Virginia.

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LAFE CHAFIN, one of the representative attorneys of the younger generation in Mingo County, is engaged in the practice of his profession at Williamson, the county seat, in which city he was born February 1, 1896. He is a son of Rev. James M. and Elizabeth Susan (Bevins) Chafin, the former a native of West Virginia and the latter of Ken- tucky. The father, a clergyman of the Christian Church, was actively interested in public affairs and was specially influential in the movement which led to the creation of Mingo County, after the organization of which he was appointed the first clerk of the County Court.

In 1913 Lafe Chafin graduated from the Williamson High School, and he then entered Washington and Lee University, where he carried forward his studies in both the literary and law departments, in the latter of which he was graduated in 1917, with the degree of Bachelor of Laws. Almost immediately after his graduation he found the call of patriotism greater than immediate professional ambition, for in July, 1917, he enlisted for service in the World war. He passed three months at Fort Benjamin Harrison, In- diana, where he received commission as second lieutenant and was assigned to the Forty-fifth United States Infantry. With his command he was transferred to Camp Taylor, Kentucky, later to Camp Gordon, Georgia, and thence to Camp Sheridan, Montgomery, Alabama, where his regiment received orders for overseas service. The command pro- ceeded to Camp Mills, New York, and soon afterward sailed from the port of the national metropolis. When the trans- port was two days out it received orders to return, owing to the signing of the historic armistice. Mr. Chafin and his comrades landed at Hoboken, New Jersey, November 14, 1918, and then returned to Camp Mills. After a brief stop at Camp Sheridan, Alabama, Mr. Chafin's regiment returned to Camp Gordon, Georgia, where it was assigned service in connection with demobilization. He there received his honorable discharge in September, 1919, and upon his return to Williamson he entered the law office of B. Randolph Bias. In March, 1920, he was admitted to the bar of his native state, at Charleston, and then became associated with Mr. Bias in practice. On the lat of January, 1922, Mr. Bias, one of the leading members of the bar of the state, admitted him to professional partnership, under the firm name of Bias & Chafin, and thus he initiates the practice of his profession under most favorable auspices, while his admis- sion to this partnership betokens alike his sterling character and professional ability. The firm is retained as counsel for the Coal Operators Association, and its practice is thus largely of corporation order. Mr. Chafin is a member of the Mingo County Bar Association and the West Virginia Bar Association, is affiliated with the American Legion, the Alpha Chi Rho college fraternity and the Masonic frater- nity, and in the Masonic fraternity he has membership in the local Blue Lodge, Chapter and Commandery of the York Rite and the Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Wheeling. He is a democrat is political allegiance, and he and his wife hold membership in the Presbyterian Church.

In New York City, in 1918, Mr. Chafin wedded Miss Gladys Claire Pierce, daughter of W. Frank and Clara (Miller) Pierce, of Buckhannon, West Virginia, where Mr. Pierce is engaged in the timber and lumber business. Mr. and Mrs. Chafin are popular figures in the representative social activities of their home city.

LAFAYETTE E. LAWSON, D. D. S. In the career of Dr. Lafayette E. Lawson, a leading dental specialist of Wil- liamson, there are to be found those elements which make interesting biography. Success in professional life, varied experiences of a military character, interest in civic affairs and modest personal deportment serve to make him a figure to be singled out in his community, where, however, he is inclined to prefer to be known merely as an earnest follower of an honorable profession and a citizen who respects the laws of his state and country.

Doctor Lawson was born February 22, 1890, in Mingo County, West Virginia, a son of Harry and Ella (Murray) Lawson, natives of Virginia. His father has been engaged in the real estate business for many years, and is one of the

prominent and influential men of his locality. After attend- ing the public schools Lafayette E. Lawson pursued a course at the Williamson High School, from which he was gradu- ated as a member of the class of 1906. He then entered the University of Kentucky, at Louisville, and in 1910 was graduated with the degree of Doctor of Dental Surgery. He began practice at Hempstead, Texas, where he remained for two years, and in 1912 took up his residence and opened an office at Williamson, West Virginia, where he now spe- cializes in dental reconstruction work.

On January 4, 1916, Doctor Lawson enlisted in the army recruiting service, and while stationed at Columbus, Ohio, was commissioned second lieutenant. In March, 1917, when his detachment was transferred to Fort McPherson, he was put into field work as a field officer, and later was stationed for two months at Camp Stuart, Newport News. Ordered overseas, Doctor Lawson was attached to the British forces at Saint Dizier, France, whence troops were dispatched to the front, and remained with the British until the American troops got into the field, when he joined the Second Pioneer Infantry, Second Army Corps, under General Huiler, remaining with that outfit during all its numerous engagements in the Meuse, Argonne, St. Mihiel and Verdun sectors. When the armistice was signed Doctor Lawson was attached to the S. O. S. salvage department, and after being at Dijon and Buda Pesth, Germany, for the Red Cross, returned to Belgium, sailed from Antwerp, and arrived at Hoboken in 1920. He went then to Camp Grant, where he received his honorable discharge, with the rank of captain, having received his commission as such in 1919.

Upon his return to Williamson Doctor Lawson joined the state troops as captain and went into Logan County, where he remained in the state service for a month, during all the trouble with the striking miners. Receiving his honorable discharge in September, 1921, he returned to Williamson and resumed his practice, in which he has been very success- ful. He has reached a high place in his profession and belongs to the various organizations thereof, likewise hold- ing membership in the Elks and the Kiwanis Club.

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History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 2, Part 195

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