History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 2, Part 201

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On January 26, 1877, George Edward Klencke married at Piedmont, Annie Sullivan, a daughter of John Sullivan who was killed while serving as a soldier in the Confederate Army during the War of the '60s. Mrs. Klencke was born in Rockingham County, Virginia, in March, 1857, and she passed away April 16, 1920. Mr. and Mrs. Klencke had the following children: Frederick, who is a carpenter of Pied- mont, married Virginia Parks, and they have a son, Kenneth; Buena Vista, who married Andrew Harmon of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, has two children, Reginald and William; Carrie, who is the wife of John R. Keller, of Westernport, Maryland, has three children, George, Evelyn and Robert; May, who married John Baldwin, lost in the service during the World war, has two children, John Edward and Vivian. Mr. Klencke was reared in the Lutheran faith and although he is not a member of any church, is inclined to follow the teaching of that denomina- tion in spiritual matters. A sound, dependable and upright citizen, Mr. Klencke has always striven to do what he believes is his duty, enjoys in the highest degree the con- fidence and respect of all with whom he is associated. Mr. Klencke at the present time is the oldest citizen now living in Piedmont. He was born and raised on the same street and he recalls when there was but one house on the north side of the main street. This was in the early '50s. The street is now built up through its entire length.

AVIS LAYTON WAMPLER is connected with the Baltimore & Ohio Railway, but his most interesting distinction is that he was elected mayor of Littleton before he had been a resident two years. He is giving Littleton a progressive, moral and businesslike administration that fully justifies the confidence of the voters who chose him to this responsi- bility.

Mr. Wampler was born near Staunton, Virginia, July 26, 1891. His grandfather, Jonas Wampler, was also a native of Augusta County, where the Wamplers settled in Colonial times on coming from Germany. Jonas Wampler was born in 1813, owned a large farm, and did a prosperous business as a stock raiser, and lived in Augusta County all his life.

He died near Staunton in 1903. His wife was a Miss Long a life-long resident of Augusta County. Samuel L. Wamp ler, father of the Littleton mayor, was also a resident of Augusta County throughout his life. He was born In 1838 and died at his farm near Staunton in 1912. His interest! were those of a successful farmer. He served in the Civi war, in Company E of the First Virginia Cavalry, joining that organization before the formal outbreak of the war and continued until the close. He participated in the first battle of Bull Run and in many other campaigns. After the war he became a republican, and was the only republican who ever held the office of judge of elections in his precinct. He was a leading member of the Church of the Brethren. Samuel L. Wampler married Mollie Grove for his first wife. She was born and died in Augusta County. By this union there were eight children: Ida, deceased; Bertie, wife of Jacob M. Jones, of Augusta County; Betty, wife of Sandy T. Weller, a painter at Staunton; Robert Luther, a contract- ing painter and decorator at Los Angeles, California; Mamie, wife of William M. Harris, a progressive farmer of Augusta County; Samuel Elmer, a merchant, paper hanger and contractor at Pittsburgh; Jennie, wife of Samuel H. Driver, a farmer in Augusta County; and Charles F., a carpenter at Manteca, California. The second wife of Samuel L. Wampler was Lydia Sniteman, who was born in Augusta County May 7, 1851, and died near Staunton Janu- ary 10, 1919. Her only child is Avis L. Wampler.

Avis L. Wampler was educated in the rural schools of Augusta County. His experiences were found on his father's farm until he was twenty-seven, and when he left home he entered the railway mail service and for fourteen months had a run out of Washington, D. C. After the death of his mother in 1919 Mr. Wampler came to Littleton, and was in the service of the Hope Natural Gas Company until October 1, 1920, when he became assistant agent at Little- ton for the Baltimore & Ohio Railway, and was later pro- moted to agent and located at Glover Gap, West Virginia.

Mr. Wampler was elected mayor of Littleton January 27, 1921, on the republican ticket, beginning his one year term February 7, 1921. In the campaign he opposed one of the strongest citizens, a democrat, but was elected by a sub- stantial majority. It was his personality and his platform that gained him the election. He proposed if elected that the poolrooms of the city should be closed, since these were a constant source of moral deterioration to the youth of the city, and undoubtedly a majority of the citizens believe that this reform alone justified the election of Mr. Wampler. Since becoming mayor he has closed the pool halls. His activity in moral reform is not the only credit to be be- stowed upon his administration. He is a good roads advo- cate, and has constantly kept the attention of the citizens directed to such improvements as sidewalks, city pavements and similar work that will realize the ideals of a good town. Mr. Wampler was urged to become a candidate for a second term and was elected in one of the biggest and hottest contested elections ever held in the town. It was a three cornered fight, with platforms as follows: square deal, citizens improvement and law and order. He was elected on the law and order platform.

June 12, 1911, in Highland County, Virginia, he married Miss Flo M. Coffman, daughter of Rev. Henry A. and Emma (Johnson) Coffman, the latter deceased. Her father, a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, is now living in Ohio. Mr. and Mrs. Wampler have five children: Emma Lydia, born June 27, 1912; Samuel Alfred, born March 29, 1914; Luther Avis, born March 28, 1917; Marvin Edward, born October 7, 1919; and Fred Eugene, born February 17, 1922.

EDWARD EARL MASTON is a representative young business man at Fairmont, Marion County, where he is manager of the Mid-West Box Company. He was born in the City of Wabash, Indiana, February 23, 1886, and is a son of William David and Alice (Rowand) Maston, natives respective of the state of New York and Ohio. William D. Maston was eleven years of age at the time of the family removal from New York to Dayton, Ohio, whence removal was later made, by team and wagon, to Indiana, with settlement on a farm

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outh of Wabash. The Rowand family removed from Ohio ad settled near Goshen, Indiana. William D. Maston was or many years in the employ of the Chicago, Cleveland, Cincinnati & St. Louis (Big Four) Railroad Company, at Anderson, Indiana, where his death occurred and where his ridow still resides.

Edward E. Mastoa gained his early education in the public schools of Anderson, Indiana, and later attended the celebrated Armour School of Technology in the City of Chicago. At the age of sixteen years ho initiated his ap- renticeship to the printer's trade, but after six months he abandoned this work and entered the employ of the Sefton Manufacturing Company, manufacturers of wooden boxes und corrugated fibre containers at Anderson, Indiana. He began work as a common laborer in the factory in 1903, and won consecutive advancement until he was made fore- man of the corrugating department, in 1911. In that year he was transferred to the company's plant at Chicago, as superintendent of the corrugating department.

In 1914 Mr. Maston returned to Anderson and became general superintendent of the newly organized Mid-West Box Company. In 1918 he was transferred to Fairmont, West Virginia, where he has since had active charge of the local manufacturing plant of this company. He has made his influence felt as one of the loyal and progressive citizens and business men of this city, is a director of the Chamber of Commerce, an active member of the Kiwanis Club, and a member of the Industrial Board of the local Young Men's Christian Association. Both he and his wife hold member- ship in the First Presbyterian Church.

June 18, 1915, recorded the marriage of Mr. Maston and Miss Sarah Reed, who was born at Ithaca, New York, a daughter of Prof. John S. Reed, a member of the faculty of Cornell University in that city. Mr. and Mrs. Maston have a daughter, Jean Louise, who was born November, 12, 1918.

JAMES C. FORINASH. His many friends and associates at Weston have for years known of and spoken of James C. Forinash as a prosperous business man, and comparatively few are aware of the early struggles and vicissitudes he went through in his determined efforts to earn a substantial suc- cess and make a name and reputation.

Mr. Ferinash was born near Weston March 4, 1857, sen of Jonas C. and Elizabeth Ann (Stanley) Forinash. His father was born in Lewis County, February 28, 1829, and his mother was born February 28, 1828, in the same county, on Stanley's Run, one and one-half miles south of Jane Lew, where her grandfather, John Stanley, had settled. He was born in England in 1736, and died in 1822. His wife, Nancy Gibbons, was born in England in 1749 and died in 1837, and both were buried in the home graveyard en Stan- ley's Run. Nancy Gibbons was shipped to America pre- sumably to get a fortune left to her, but her stepfather had received it and had sold her to pay for her transporta- tien. John Stanley, met Nancy Gibbons at Red Stone, Pennsylvania, and here they were married. Jacob Stanley, the father of Mrs. Elizabeth Forinash, was born at Red Stone. John Stanley owned all the land from Fisher Summit to Jane Lew, from hill top to hill top on Stanley's Run. The following children were born on the home farm on Stanley's Run to Jacob Stanley, namely, Ruth, Diadema, Matilda, Sarah, Margaret, John, Jonathan, Maxwell, Mary, Elizabeth Ann and Ruby.

Jonas C. Forinash and Elizabeth Ann Stanley were mar- ried July 22, 1847, by Rev. John Hardman. Jonas Forinash did farm work for a number of years, and in 1862 moved to Weston, where he worked at various things. He was always industriens, but not an accumulator, and died comparatively poor on February 28, 1877. In politica he was a whig and later a republican. The mother was an active member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and survived her husband forty years, passing away February 6, 1917. James C. Ferinash contributed in many ways to the comfort of his aging mother. There were six children in the family, and the three now living are: James C .; Anna, wife of John Lake, living at Three Rivers, Michigan; and P. C. Forinash, of Elkhart, Indiana.

James C. Forinash when teu years of age went to live with an uncle for two years, and then for two years worked on a farm at five dollars a month. These circumstances did not favor regular attendance at school, but as boy and maa he has always made the best of his opportunities. When he came to Westou Mr. Foriaash was employed in the brick yard making the brick for the construction of the Central Building of the Insane Asylum. From the brick yard he went into a planing mill, and after considerable experience there the company sent him out to supervise the building of houses, a work he followed four years. His next em- ployment was in the McBride furniture business, where he learned the art of making furniture according to the hand made methods of that day. He spent seven years with this plant, learning the furniture trade and business and also undertaking.

When he left the McBride firm Mr. Forinash entered business for himself under the firm name of J. C. Forinash & Company. That was in 1883. His partner and financial backer was Samnel A. Steele. Mr. Steele died December 23, 1917, and in his will he bequeathed all his personal and real property to Mr. Forinash, including the building where the Forinash furniture store is. Besides being head of this prosperous furniture business and undertaking establish- ment Mr. Ferinash ewns an eighth of the stock in the No Leak Paper Dish Company of Wheeling, a corporation capi- talized at a hundred thousand dollars, all paid in.

June 6. 1882, Mr. Ferinash married Lizzie Ridgeway. Three children were born to their marriage, but the only one now living is Minnie, a graduate of Mount de Chantal Academy of Wheeling and now the widow of Dr. H. S. Hefner, a dentist at Weston. Dr. llefner died June 11, 1922. The family are members of the Methodist Church. Mr. Forinash is affiliated with Weston Lodge Independent Order of Odd Fellows, of which he is a past noble grand. He is a republican.

MILTON HAROLD TAYLOR, whose farm is in the Masontowa community of Preston County, was a farmer before he really learned farming as a vocation and business, and his work in recent years has demonstrated the value of knowl- edge as a supplement to brawn in handling the complicated technique of agriculture and stock husbandry.

Mr. Taylor represents an eld and prominent family of Preston County. His father, George Washington Taylor, was born October 24, 1828, in Menongalia County, and in 1848 married Eliza Jane Emerson, daughter of John Emer- son. She was born about eight miles north of Morgantown, January 25, 1825.

Milton Harold Taylor was the youngest of the nine child- ren of his parents and was born October 7, 1869, at the old Taylor homestead four miles east of Masontown. He learned the work of the fields co-incident with his lessons in reading, writing and arithmetic in the rural schools. He became an old school farmer, but some years after his mar- riage and after he was the father of several children he decided to know more about farming, particularly the scien- tific reasons that underlie agriculture. He entered the State University Agricultural School, taking the special work provided fer men who had not completed the regular pre- paratory training leading up to university. He studied three winter terms, receiving a diploma as a graduate, but all the time he carried on the work of his home farm, direct- ing it over the telephone and in accordance with the new ideas he was getting from day to day and week to week. Mr. Taylor was a classmate and roommate as well in university with Hen. W. D. Zinn, the widely known writer on agricultural topics whose theory and practice of farming have opened the eyes of many to the best methods of get- ting results on a West Virginia farm. For a time after his gradnation Mr. Taylor was in the service of the State Board of Agriculture lecturing and speaking before farmers insti- tntes, and carrying his own knowledge by extension from the laboratories of the university to men whose duties kept them close to the farm.

Mr. Taylor among various agricultural methods exercises a selection of seed, doing this while the ear of corn is still on the stalk or saving the small grain for aced where it

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has matured the best. His methods of planting and tilling are such as harmonize with the suggestions from the Agri- cultural Department of the State, and the results far out- weigh the haphazard and arbitrary methods in vogue in his childhood and, for that matter, among many of the mnen on the farm calling themselves farmers today. Mr. Taylor found it a matter of profit as well as satisfaction to elimi- nate the scrub animal and introduce registered stock. He is a short horn-Durham cattle breeder, and has a stock of blue-blooded Barred Rock poultry. He has also tried the Bronze turkey, the Roscomb Brown Leghorn and the Pekin duck with satisfactory results.

Mr. Taylor's present farm is adjacent to Masontown on the south. At the time of his marriage thirty years ago, he located on a farm two miles southwest of Masontown, bought another place two years later, and in 1901 moved to a farm just north of Masontown, coming to his present place in April, 1903. His farm includes some of the first land cultivated in this part of the state, it having been settled about the time of the Revolution. The improvements are of Mr. Taylor's own planning and construction, and include a house and barn and the first silo erected in Preston County west of Cheat River. He believes in modern ma- chinery, and uses a tractor for power to operate his corn binder, grain hinder, harrow, plow and soil packer, tools that are essential to a farmer who believes in getting the work done without loss of time or motion. Mr. Taylor is also a road representative in Preston County for the Inter- national Harvester Company, selling motor trucks and threshers and tractors in addition to the varied line of farm machinery manufactured by that corporation.

Mr. Taylor was reared in a republican family, casting his first vote for Benjamin Harrison in 1892. He has been a notary public, was elected a justice of the peace in 1908, and served two terms as county committeeman, hut does not indulge in politics for the sake of office for himself. As a youth he was a member of the Evangelical Church, but is now a Presbyterian. He is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows at Masontown, of which he is a past grand, and is also a member of the Encampment. He has held all the chairs in the Lodge of Knights of Pythias, is a Mason and a member of the Junior Order United American Mechanics. However he has done most of his fraternal work in the Patrons of Husbandry, becoming affiliated with the Grange in 1898. He has held a number of offices in local and state Grange, acted as organizer of subordinate granges, and has assisted in influencing the program of state legisla- tion through the Grange. He was one of the organizers of the Grange Mutual Fire Insurance Company of West Vir- ginia, and served as its secretary. He was one of the organ- izers and a director of the Bank of Masontown, a director of the Masontown Telephone Company, and was vice presi- dent for West Virginia of the Farmers' National Congress. He has been actively associated with a number of the prominent leaders and educators in the West Virginia Farmers' Movement, and has been a member of the State Poultry Association, State Live Stock Association, State Horticultural Association, State Dairy Association and other similar organization.

In Preston County, January 25, 1893, Mr. Taylor married Anna B. Martin, who was born at Clifton Mills, June 18, 1869, daughter of Simon R. and Sarah A. (Liston) Martin. Her father served as a Union soldier three years with the Third Maryland Regiment. Mr. and Mrs. Taylor have a family of childreen inspired with all the progressive ideas and community ideals of their parents. The oldest, Ferris A., graduated from the Old Dominion College near Win- eliester, Virginia, taught for several terms, and was in the undertaking business in Morgantown when he enlisted in 1917, as sergeant mechanic in the One Hundred and Thir- teenth Ammunition Train, Motor Section, was sent over- seas, but the armistice was signed before he reached the front. The son Lynn A., who graduated from West Vir- ginia University in 1922, was in the navy during the war, but did not get into action. James O., the third of the Taylor brothers, was a volunteer and a sergeant in the One Hundred and Thirteenth Ammunition Train. Ruth, who married Glenn Pyles, of Mount Morris, Pennsylvania,

is a graduate of the Masontown High School and taught in the Valley District High School. Martin is attending the Masontown High School, while Dolly and Viola, the younger children, are pupils in the grades.

S. CHARLES STEELE. In the profession of certified public accountant S. Charles Steele, of Fairmont, is one of the older men in point of service in the State of West Virginia. His abilities have brought him many important honors and responsibilities in this comparatively new field.

He is the grandson of a sometime distinguished pioneer Methodist minister of West Virginia. His grandfather, Rev. Samuel Steele, was born in Ireland, and came to the United States when a young man. He was liberally educated, and. almost his entire adult life was a consecration to the service of his church. He was chaplain of the Third West Virginia: Infantry of the Union Army during the Civil war, and among other communities that recall his work as pastor were Wheeling and Huntington, and he had charge of the Meth- odist Church at Buckhannon, Upshur County, when he died in 1886. After coming to West Virginia he married Miss . Victoria Lorentz, a native of Weston, Lewis County, and member of an old and influential family there.

The father of S. Charles Steele is George C. Steele, who was born at Parkersburg, Wood County, October 30, 1860, but since early youth has lived in Morgantown, where he has had a prominent part in both business and civic affairs. He was for several terms mayor, being the first mayor of "Greater Morgantown," when the several adjacent inde- pendent municipalities were merged with the then Morgan- town. For many years he has been engaged in the insurance business. George C. Steele married Laura May Williams, a native of Greensboro, Greene County, Pennsylvania, and daughter of Charles and Melissa (Johnson) Williams.

At the home of his parents in Morgantown S. Charles Steele was born July 24, 1885. His education was one in prepara- tion for a business and professional career. He attended the grammar and high schools of his native city, West Virginia Wesleyan College and the University of West Virginia. An employment that had much to do with the choice of a per- manent vocation was with the office of the attorney general of West Virginia where he devoted nearly a year to making confidential reports from Richmond, Virginia, to the attorney general on the Virginia debt settlement. July 1, 1908, Mr. Steele entered the office of Thomas B. Dixcy, a prominent certified public accountant of New York City, and under whom he enjoyed an exceptionally broad range of experience and training until March 5, 1910, at which date he estab- lished himself in the independent practice of his profession at Morgantown and Fairmont. His certificate as a certified public accountant is dated September 9, 1911. He was the first accountant in West Virginia to be elected a member of the American Institute of Accountants, the date of his af- filiation being September 1, 1917. In the past decade he has handled a large volume of important work both for corporations and individuals. Mr. Steele is a member of the West Virginia Society of Certified Public Accountants, the National Association of Cost Accountants, the Old Colony Club, the Fairmont Country Club, and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.

March 15, 1918, Mr. Steele volunteered his service to the Government. His ambition was to get overseas, but the authorities found a man of his profession more useful in this country. He was employed as a civilian in the construction division of the quartermaster's department of the army. As a supervising traveling accountant he had supervision over the field auditors at the various army cantonments. He was given discharge from Government service December 15, 1918, and has since given his attention to his substantial and important professional business at Fairmont.

November 1, 1911, Mr. Steele married Miss Margaret Estelle Denniston. She was born in San Francisco, Cali- fornia, but was reared and educated in New York City, and is a graduate of Hunter College. Her parents were William and Annie Denniston.

GEORGE L. PENCE, M. D. One of the most accomplished physicians and surgeons of Summers County is Doctor

6 Las . Steel .

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George L. Pence of Hinton. Doctor Pence was a captain n the Medical Corps during the World war, Baw active ervice in the field hospitals and light artillery in France oth during the war and after the armistice.

Doctor Pence was born at Pence Spriogs in Summers County, February 24, 1881, son of Andrew P. and Sallie Ann (Lewis) Pence. His father, founder of the noted re- ort and mineral springs known as Pence Springs, was orn near Greenville in Monroe County, West Virginia, in t839, and died in 1915. The family were pieneers of Monroe County. Andrew P. Pence served four years as a Confederate soldier in the artillery branch of the army. After the war he became a merchant, cendneted a store at Green Sulphur Springs and Sandstone, now known aa New Richmond, and subsequently waa the partner in the busi- ness at Alderson. About 1877 he bought from the Jesse Beard eatate about 300 acres, including the Pence Springs. He subsequently sold two-thirds in order to enlist capital for the development of the springs, but later bought back the interest. He did much to give publicity to the fine qualities of the mineral water, and established a large botel that was filled with guests seeking the benefit of the water and the other attractions of the locality. Pence Springs is one of the noted resorta of the state, and is located twelve miles east of Hinton. Andrew P. Pence served as a member of the Legislature in 1910-12, for a number of years was president of the Board of Education in Talcott District, and he was an ardent democrat. His wife, Sallie Ann Lewis, was born at Blakes Mill in Greenbrier County, and is living at Pence Springs nt the age of seventy-eight. They have five children: Jacob D., of Pence Springs; Bessie S., wife of O. C. Carter of Alderson; Silas H., of Pence Springs; George L .; and Nellie K., at home.

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History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 2, Part 201

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