History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 2, Part 207

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service in France during the World war. Nan, living at Marietta, Ohio, is the widow of Robert H. LeBlanc, who was a non-commissioned officer in the army and had a record of service in the Philippines. Mary Greek is the wife of Rev. Holmes A. Spencer a minister of the Methodist Episco- pal Church, South, at Jacksonville, Florida. James E. is interested in a corrugated box factory at Parkersburg. Ida B. lived for several years near Denver, Colorado, and died while visiting at Sandyville, at the age of thirty-five, her husband, Addison D. Johnson, being now employed in a store at Sandyville. Charles E., the youngest of the family, is a merchant and farm owner at Sandyville.

John M. Baker was born near LeRoy in Jackson County. November 22, 1872, and as a youth was educated in rural schools and select schools in his native county and up to 1892 pursued advanced courses in the Fairmont State Normal School. He had taught two terms in Jackson County, and taught another term after leaving normal school. He studied law privately, and in 1895 entered the University of West Virginia, being gradnated LL. B. in 1896. From the year of his graduation until 1909, Mr. Baker practiced at Ripley in Jackson County, and since December, 1909, has had his home and office at Spencer, where he is member of the firm Harper & Baker. His partner is J. M. Harper. They have a substantial law practice and are also owners of the business building in which they have their offices, at the corner of Church and Main streets, and have considerable other real estate and oil royalties.

Mr. Baker served as prosecuting attorney of Jackson County four years, 1905-08, and for five years was a member of the Board of Education of the Spencer Independent School District, a period marked by the construction of the new high school. He is a republican, is affiliated with Moriah Lodge No. 38, A. F. and A. M., at Spencer, Spencer Lodge, Knights of Pythias, and is a past chancellor of Ripley Lodge, Knights of Pythias, and a representative in the Grand Lodge. He is a member of the Roane County, West Virginia State and American Bar Associations, the Spencer Country Club, is a stockholder in the Ravenswood Wholesale Grocery Company, and was one of the organizers and for a time vice president of the First National Bank of Spencer.

During the World war Mr. Baker was a member and the secretary of the Legal Advisory Board of Roane County, and a worker in behalf of the success of all local drives. He has an interest in his father's old homestead at Sandy- ville, is owner of oil royalties and has a fine, comfortable home on Spring Street in Spencer.

"On December 19, 1899, at Pomeroy, Ohio, he married Jessie Riley, daughter of Benjamin F. and Virginia (Tay- lor) Riley, now residents of Detroit, Michigan. Her father lived in Jackson County, West Virginia, for a number of years, was deputy sheriff and jailer there, later owned and operated an automobile and repair shop in Detroit, and is a retired painter by trade. Mr. and Mrs. Baker have two children: Clary R., born July 26, 1900, graduated from the Spencer High School in 1919, attended West Virginia Uni- versity one year and is at home. Mary V., born October 27, 1902, is now a teacher in the Spencer grade schools. She completed the regular four year high school course in Spencer in three years, with an average grade in her studies of over 95 per cent. She took the normal course in the Spencer High School before beginning work as teacher.

FLEMING N. ALDERSON. Both in the profession of law and as an influential figure in connection with public affairs in his native state Captain Alderson is well up- holding the high prestige of the family name, his father having long been one of the influential citizens and leading members of the bar of West Virginia and having repre- sented this commonwealth in the Congress of the United States.

Captain Alderson, one of the representative lawyers of Nicholas County, with offices both at Summersville, the county seat, and at Richwood, where he maintains his resi- dence, was born in this county on the 8th of January, 1884, and is a son of Hon. John Duffy Alderson and Eugenia A.

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ider) Alderson. John D. Alderson was born at Sum- usville, this county, November 29, 1854, a son of Joseph A Alderson and a great-grandson of Col. George Alderson, apioneer and influential citizen of Monroe County, where d town of Aldersen was named in his honor, the Alder- family having been founded in Virginia in the Colonial @ of our national history. Joseph A. Alderson was a a versity graduate and was graduated also in a law school. I was long engaged in the practice of law at Summers- vle, and served as prosecuting attorney of Nicholas County, vieh then included Webster County. lle was a mem- t: of the Virginia Senate during the Civil war, one of the fidental results of this conflict having been the creation the new state of West Virginia.

Hon. John Duffy Alderson, whose death occurred at Rich- bod December 2, 1910, was a mere youth when he became tively identified with political affairs, as a vigorous ad- cate of the principles of the democratie party. He was pointed a page at the West Virginia Constitutional invention of 1872, later served as doorkeeper for the ate Senate, of which he subsequently beeame elerk, and

an able lawyer he gave effective service as prosecuting torney of Nicholas County. In 1888 he received the mocratie nomination for representative of the Third ongressional District of West Virginia in the Congress of o United States, to which he was elected and in which, y re-election, he served two consecutive terms. Ile then sumed the practice of his profession at Summersville, nd in connection with publie affairs he subsequently 'rved as a member of the House of Delegates of the State egislature. He was one of the strong, upright, broad- minded citizens of West Virginia, held an inviolable place 1 popular confidence and esteem and achieved high stand- ng in his profession.

To the public schools of Summersville Capt. Fleming Newman Alderson is indebted for his earlier educational iseipline, which was supplemented by his attending St. "ineents College and the West Virginia University, and in he law department of the latter he was graduated in 1907. On the 8th of October of that year he was admitted to the ar of his native state, and for several years thereafter he was associated in practice with his father, with head- quarters at Summersville and with a law business that extended into the courts of counties adjacent to Nicholas County. He finally established an office at Richwood, and in this city he now maintains his residence and profes- sional headquarters, the while his distinct achievement marks him as one of the representative members of the bar of this section of the state. During the legislative session of 1911 Captain Alderson represented Nicholas County in the Lower House of the State Legislature, at which session he had the act passed establishing the Nicholas County Iligh School at Summersville. In 1913 he was appointed assistant United States district attorney for the Southern District of West Virginia, an office of which he continued the incumbent three years. IFis retire- ment prior to the expiration of his term of four years resulted from his having been, in 1916, made the democratie nominee for representative of his district in the United States Congress, his defeat being compassed by normal political exigencies. As military aide te Governor Corn- well of West Virginia in connection with the nation 's participation in the World war he was appointed chief of the Department of Military Censors and Enrollment, with the rank of captain, and in this important position he gave most loyal and effective service. He and his wife are active members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and he is chairman of the Board of Trustees of the church of this denomination in his home city. In the Masonie fraternity Captain Alderson is affiliated with Sum- mersville Lodge Ne. 76, A. F. and A. M .; kichwood Chap- ter No. 37, R. A. M .; Sutton Commandery No. 16, Knights Templar; Ben-Kedem Temple of the Mystic Shrine in the City of Charleston; and the Consistory of the Scottish Rite in the City of Wheeling.

On the 8th of June, 1921, was solemnized the marriage of Captain Alderson and Miss Rebecca M. Wigton, of LaGrange, Indiana. Mrs. Alderson graduated from the

conservatory of musie at Oberlin College, Ohio, and prior to her marriage had been supervisor of music in tho public schools of Richwood. She is a popular figure ia conner tion with the representative social and cultural activities of Richwood, and is the gracious chatelaine of eno of the attractive and hospitable homea of this city.

Captain Allersen is attorney for the First National Bank of Richwood and the Nicholas County Bank at Summers- ville, besides being similarly retained by a number of im portant industrial and commercial corporations in this ser tion of the state. lle is a stockholder and director of the Nicholas Hardware & Furniture Company at Richwood, and is vice president and secretary of the Tioga Coal Com. pany.

LEWIS II. MILLER, a successful attorney of the Ripley bar, has engaged in many useful activities during his brief lifetime of little more than thirty years. Ile is a man of exceptional educational attainments, and in former years was a teacher. lle also has a record of service in the World war.

Mr. Miller was born at Millwood in Jackson County, November 19, 1890. Remotely the Miller family ia of Ger- man origin, and the name was established in Pennsylvania in Colonial times. His grandfather, Lewis M. Miller, was born in Pennsylvania in 1812, and settled as a pioneer in what is now Jackson County, West Virginia, and was a farmer near Millwood, where he died in 1889. He married Elizabeth Shinn, a life long resident of what is now Jack- son County. Leander Miller was born on the present site of Millwood in 1850, and has lived in that vicinity all his life. Altogether he has taught in the rural and graded schools of the county forty-five years, but in conjunction has also conducted his farm, and though he started farm- ing with limited capital he has developed an extensive estate. In the line of public duty he served as deputy sheriff four years under Sheriff J. O. Shinn and four years under Sheriff I. M. Adams. He is a republican, an active supporter of the Methodist Episcopal Church and is affiliated with Ashton Lodge, F. and A. M., at Ravenswood and the Knights of Pythias. Leander Miller married Jessie B. Harrison, who was born near Point Pleasant in Mason County in 1870. Of their large family Lewis Il. is the oldest. Benjamin W., now in the insurance and real estate business at Parkersburg and also a farmer, was a first lieutenant in the 89th Division of the American Expedition- ary Forces, spent one year in France, and was on duty in the St. Mihiel campaign. Blanche is the wife of Henry F. Pfost, cashier of the Bank of Ripley, and the other child- ren are: Miss Edith, at home; Kate, wife of Dr. Ray Kessel, a physician and surgeon at Charleston; Miss Luella, a teacher in the public schools at Ripley; Panline, a student in Ohio University at Athens; John, a student in the Ravenswood High School; Hlazel, attending high school at Charleston; and Starling, a pupil in the Ripley public school.

Lewis H. Miller spent his early life on his father's farm, attended rural schools, and at the age of sixteen tanght for one year in Cooper District of Mason County. There- after he taught school alternately with his advanced work as a student and partly paid the expenses of his liberal education. For one year he attended West Virginia Wes- leyan College at Buckhannon, and spent five years in the regular course of Ohio University at Athens, where he graduated in 1913 with the degree of A. B. He was a member of the Sigma Pi college fraternity. On graduat- ing in 1913 he became superintendent of schools at Ripley, remaining there one year and for another year was super- intendent of schools at Alderson, a town located in both Greenbrier and Monroe counties.

Mr. Miller graduated LL. B. in 1917 from the West Vir- ginia University Law School, and was admitted to the bar October 2, 1917. He at once began practice at Ripley, but turned over his accumulating interest aa a lawyer to enlist in the Aviation Corps of the U. S. Navy on July 1, 1918. The first month he was stationed at Cherry Stone Island Naval Base off Cape Charles, Virginia, was then transferred

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to Norfolk until October 1, 1918, aud was ou the U. S. S. l'ilgrim, hut subsequently transferred to Pelham Bay Park in the Officers Training School and on November 1, 1918, joined the Officers Training School at Princeton University, where he remained until December 22, 1918, when he was relieved from active duty but was held in the Reserve Corps until September, 1921, when he was finally discharged. Since his war service Mr. Miller has been busy with his general law practice at Ripley, being a member of the firm of Miller, Boggess & Bell, with offices on Front Street, a partnership that was formed January 1, 1921.

Mr. Miller is a member of the Jackson County and West Virginia State Bar Associations, is a director and member of the Executive Board of the Bank of Ripley, a member of the Advisory Board of the West Virginia Mortgage and Discount Corporation at Charleston, and has accumulated some valuable property interests. He is a republican, a member of the Protestant Episcopal Church, and is affiliated with Ripley Lodge No. 16, F. and A. M., Purnell Lodge of Perfection, 14th degree of the Scottish Rite at Parkers- burg, O. S. Long Chapter of the Rose Croix at Parkers- burg, Athens Lodge No. 109, Knights of Pythias, at Athens, Ohio, and Union Grange No. 90 in Jackson County.

December 23, 1917, at Millwood, Mr. Miller married Miss Freda Rambow, daughter of William H. and Emma (Polsley) Rambow, who still live on their farm near Mill- wood. Mr. and Mrs. Miller have one daughter, Ruth Lee, born January 6, 1920.

CONCORD NORMAL SCHOOL, NOW CONCORD COLLEGE. In the year 1865, at the close of the Civil war, Mercer County, like many of her sister counties in Virginia and other Southern states was without a Court House, it having been burned with almost the entire town of Princeton, by order of Colonel Jenifer, in 1862. As soon as it was determined to rebuild the Court House the question of relocation began to be agitated by the people in the lower section of the county, who had long been complaining of the injustice to them in the location of the Court House at Princeton.

Through the influence of the "Board of Registration" the question was submitted to a vote of the people, which resulted in the location of the Court House at Concord Church, a little village which had been built around a Methodist Church and a post office, Concord Church. After the Court House had been removed from Princeton to Con- cord the people of Princeton, now in possession of the registration machinery, became very anxious to obtain it again. Before the Court House was completed another vote was taken, which resulted in re-locating at Princeton. The lower end of the county having been cut off to help form Summers County, there was left no hope of ever re- gaining the Court House for Concord, the unfinished Court House and jail reverting to the original owner of the land on which they stood. He tendered it to the state on con- dition that a branch of the State Normal School be established at Concord.

Accordingly, on the 28th day of February, 1872, the Legislature passed " An act to locate a Branch State Normal School at Concord in the County of Mercer." This act re- quired buildings to be fitted and furnished for the con- venience of said school, free of charge to the state. Before anything was done toward the completion of the building the owner of the land died, leaving his affairs in such con- fusion as to render it impossible to procure such a title to the property as the state would accept. The friends of the measure, on the 2nd day of December, 1873, procured the passage of an act authorizing the procurement of a title to any other lot in Concord and the erection of suitable buildings thereon without cost to the state. The act further provided this should be done within twelve months from the passage of the bill or the school would be transferred to Princeton.

The last named provision stimulated the people to supreme effort, and to a realization that immediate action was necessary to retain the school. The village consisted of five families, a small number for so great and momentous an undertaking. Capt. William Holroyd, who was the oldest

resident, took the matter in hand and impressed the people with the great advantages and benefits to be derived from such a school. On the 29th day of May, 1874, William H. Martin and wife, conveyed to the State of West Virginia six acres of land upon which to erect the Normal School building. One of the conditions was that no money was to be appropriated by the state for the buildings, so the money had to be secured by subscription. With this money a wooden structure was erected at a cost of about $1,700. see On February 22, 1874, the corner stone was laid with Masonic honors. April 21, 1875, Capt. John A. Douglass and Hon. William M. Reynolds appeared before the Board of Regents of the normal schools then in session at Charleston and presented the deed made by William H. Martin and wife to the State of West Virginia. The board accepted it in compliance with the act of the Legislature. At this meeting of the Regents, Capt. James Harvey French was appointed principal, salary $700 and Hon. French M. Reynolds, assistant, salary $600. The Regents ordercd that Concord Normal School should begin on the tenth of May, 1875, and continue twenty weeks, then take an inter- mission until the first Monday in March, 1876. The environ- ment was not very inviting on that memorable morning, May 10, 1875 when the school was first opened. Imagine the beautiful rolling lawn, upon the summit of which now stands the Concord Normal Training School, once occupied by the splendid and commodious brick building which was 0 burned in November, 1910, but on that momentous occasion was a wilderness of red brush, chinquopin bushes and stumps, in the midst of which stood a rough, unfinished wooden frame building about 39x48 feet, two stories in height, without either windows or doors, and you can gain a faint | p idea of the appearance of the first school building as it stood in the May suushine, guiltless of paint or ornament. The inside was not more inviting. There was a floor in the lower story, with a partition of rough hoards across the building, dividing it into unequal rooms. With an unob- structed view of the weather-boarding without and the rafters overhead, many of the boys, for want of better seats, sat upon the joists and studied. There was no apparatus whatever. No stoves or furnace, so, on chilly spring days the students, when not reciting, were hovering around fires out of doors made of the logs and debris which were plentiful. There was no bell to ring the assembling of school, the arrangement for that purpose being rather primi- tive, consisting of a cow's horn, which in 1878 gave place to a very sweet toned bell. The frame building was used until commencement, July 2, 1886. Early in July of that year work was begun on the new brick building for which the Legislature of 1885 had made an appropriation of $5,000. It was completed the first week in January, 1887. On the 10th of January, with Captain French unable to leave his room, and John D. Sweeney in the Legislature, James F. Holroyd began school in the new building.

The transfer of the school from the old church to the new school house marks the beginning of a period of progress beyond the most sanguine expectations of the friends of the institution. The Legislature of 1887 appropriated $3,000 to complete and furnish the building. It was enlarged in 1888 by an addition costing $3,500. The Legislature of 1897, realizing the beneficent influence of this progressive school, appropriated $20,000 for the erection of a still larger building, which, with its many convenient class rooms, fine library, its large auditorium, capable of seating 1,000 people, its literary society halls, its "model school" rooms, was the one destroyed by fire in 1910. In 1891 a Ladies Hall was built on a lot donated by Captain Holroyd. This building has thirty rooms and is now occupied by young men, as the handsome and com- modious new Woman's Hall has been built on the campus of the New School Building with a capacity of 150 girls.

In 1886 the name of the post office was changed from Concord Church to Athens, but the school still retains the name of Concord. On the morning of November 10, 1910, three o'clock, peals from a church bell roused the citizens of Athens to witness the deplorable spectacle of the handsome Normal School building being consumed by fire. Even

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nile the massive columns of this structure of architectural lauty wero tottering upon their foundations and the costly uipment was smouldering in the debris, plans for the con- iuance of school were being laid and by daybreak sixteen oms were at the disposal of the school officials. Students, achers and citizens, all loyal and enthusiastic, met at eight 'clock in one of the churches and they were all 60 per- ictly in accord in their sentiments and determination to > on in spite of all obstacles that the hymn they sang semed very appropriate, "Blest be the tie that binds." Many other towns and communities were anxious candidates br the relocation of the school, but the people of Mercer ounty and especially of Athens had made many sacrifices, nd had struggled with many discouraging problems in ostering the growth of the school and making it an institu- ion worthy of the name it now proudly maintains among he leading educational eenters of the state, and so, after nany anxious days, were made glad by its relocation at ithens, with the provision that the community donate the and for the new building. Twenty-six acres were secured on which now stands a large, commodious building, fireproof, excelled by none in the state. A fine baseball and athletic ield, tennis courts, a bowling alley in the basement, and che management is planning for a new gymnasium. This year's summer school enrolled 550, and at the last meeting of the State Board of Education, Concord State Normal was placed on a Teachers College basis and is now Concord College, granting degrees.

Thus, from a very small beginning, has risen to eminenee and distinction the Concord State Normal School.

EDWARD CALVIN LAMBERT, superintendent of the Yukon Pocahontas Coal Company at Yukon, McDowell County, was born in Lawrence County, Ohio, May 1, 1875, a son of Vincent H. and Sarah (Campbell) Lambert, who now maintain their home at Crumpler, MeDowell County, West Virginia. The father was born in Nebraska, and the mother in Pennsylvania, of Scotch parents. William Lambert, grandfather of the subject of this review, came from Eng- land and settled at Lambert's Point, Virginia. Vincent H. Lambert has been associated with mines and mining sinee boyhood, and in charge of mining operations conducted by the Means & Russell Iron Company, he was for twenty- seven years in iron ore, limestone and clay mines in Ohio and Kentucky.

The subject of this sketch Edward Calvin, is the eldest of seven children. He gained his early education in the schools of his native city, Ironton, Ohio, and when but nine years old he began work in the mines with which his father was identified. After leaving school he served an apprenticeship in a plumbing establishment at Portsmouth, Ohio, but he never worked at this trade as a vocation. He found employment with the Means and Russell Iron Com- pany in the mining of limestone and fire elay, with which company he continued until he was twenty-four years old.

On July 5, 1899, he was united in marriage with Miss Rebecca Brewster, of Ironton, Ohio, whose mother was a member of one of the oldest and highly respected families of West Virginia. The father of Mrs. Lambert was a native of Virginia. Mr. Lambert established a home for himself and wife at Ironton, Ohio, where he remained for two years, being employed as general manager by the Chas. Taylor Company of Cincinnati, Ohio. In the winter of 1900 he came to Mingo County, West Virginia, and found employment in the mines of Tug River District. These mines are now controlled by the Red Jacket Consolidated Coal Company. He began work on the grades at ninety cents a day, and by efficiency and effective service he won continuous promotions until he was finally made general superintendent of three mines, the Maritime, Lick Fork and Grapevine. He next became superintendent for the Wil- liamson Coal & Coke Company at Williamson, West Virginia, later was manager of mines at Glenalum, West Virginia, and thereafter he was identified with production in one of the finest mining camps of the district, that of the Excelsior Pocahontas Coal Company. In 1917 he went with the George L. Carter Coal Company as general superintendent, remain-

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History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 2, Part 207

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