History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 2, Part 209

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DR. LUTHER H. CLARK, came to McDowell County as a young physician and surgeon in the service of the con- tracter who was building a branch of the Norfolk & Western which opened up one of the largest coal districts iu the county. This werk finished he remained as physi- cian and surgeon to a number of coal mining companies and alse in general practice at Northfork and Kyle. Doctor Clark has been husied with many affairs outside his profession, and ameng others is president of the Clark National Bank of Northfork.

He was born January 19, 1868, at Peterstown, Monroe County, West Virginia, and represents the old and prem- inent Clark family of Augusta County, Virginia. One member of this family was the Clark of the Lewis and Clark expedition. His great-grandfather Capt. Jack Peters was a prominent character in Monroe County, West Virginia, and Peterstown was named for him and also Peters Mountain. The parents ef Doctor Clark, Lewis Floyd and Cynthia Annie (Byrnside) Clark were both bern in Virginia. His father was a merchant at Peterstown and during the Civil war was in the service of the Confederate Government and toward the close of the war into the field with a Virginia regiment.

Luther H. Clark acquired a common school education at Peterstown, and spent four years in the Academy at Pearisburg, Virginia. Following this he worked for an older brother and also for his father in the store, and from his carnings he accumulated the money needed for his medical education. In 1889 he entered the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Baltimore, where he was graduated M. D. in 1892. Since then he has attended post-graduate courses in New York City and elsewhere as often as his business permitted. Almost immediately after his graduation he returned to West Virginia in association with Dr. C. A. Johnsen engaged to handle the medical and surgical work for Samuel Walten, contracter for the construction of the Norfolk & Western Railroad in McDowell and other countics. This contract was finished in September, 1892, and at the opening of the railroad through the coal field Mr. Clark determined to remain and established his home at Kyle. For nearly thirty years he has been physician for the Lynch- burg Coal & Coke Company, Powhatan Coal & Coke Com- pany, Elkridge Coal & Ceke Company, and Algona Coal & Ceke Company, in addition to looking after an extensive general practice with office at Northfork, though his home is still at Kyle.

As a pioneer in this section Doctor Clark availed himself of some opportunities that were presented at the time. Hc and some others discovered that a tract of forty-three acres across the Creek from the railroad statien had been ever- looked in entering the lands, and they secured possession of this tract, platted it and leased it for a long period, and Doctor Clark was at the head of the Development Company that handled the land. The locality was long known as Clark's. The Clark National Bank of North- ferk was organized in 1912 and in 1913 Dector Clark bought the controlling interest and became president, with Mr. John Bane cashier.

In 1894 at Baltimore, Maryland, Doctor Clark married Miss Minnia Pinkerton. They have four children, Helen, Mildred, Lewis H. and Wyndham Stokes. Lewis graduated with the class of 1922 from the University of Pennsylvania. The son Wyndham graduated in 1922 from the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis. Dector Clark is a member of the Episcopal Church. He is one of the very prominent Masons of West Virginia, active in both the York and Scottish Rite and the Shrine. He was Grand

Master of the West Virginia Grand Lodge of Masens in 1904, was High Priest of the Grand Chapter of the Royal Arch in 1918, Grand Commander of the State Knights Templar in 1916, Illustrious Potentate of Beni-Kedem Temple A. A. O. N. M. S. of Charleston in 1921, and is a member of the Board of Governors of the Masonic Home at Parkersburg. He is a member of the County,

Stat the

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Stute and American Medical Associations, and belongs to the Bluefield Country Club and the Guyandotte Hunting ('lub of Huntington.

ROBERT WHITE, who bears the name of honorable dis- tinetion in Hampshire County, has been a successful mem- ber of the Romney bar for over twenty years, and is serv- ing his third consecutive term as prosceuting attorney.

His great-grandfather was named Robert White. This Robert White was a grandson of a Scotchman, who was a surgeon in the British Navy, and on leaving the service settled in New Jersey, where he married a Miss Ilogue. Their son John subsequently became a pioneer in the Valley of Virginia. Robert White, representing the third generation of the family, served as an officer in the American Army during the Revolution, lived at Winchester, Virginia, and was judge of the Circuit Court of that dis- triet. Judge Robert White married Miss Baker.

Their son John Baker White was a citizen of prominence in this section of Old Virginia, and he served as clerk of the County Court of Hampshire County before the war. At the beginning of hostilities he identified himself with the Confederate Government at Richmond, and died there before the elose of the war. His second wife was a daughter of Christian Strite, a Lutheran minister of Winebester. The children of this marriage were: Robert White, whe served West Virginia as attorney general; Frances, who became the wife of S. L. Flournoy, of Charleston, West Virginia; Alexander, a farmer, who died near Wardensville in Hardy County; Christian S .; Luey, who married Robert Ferguson; Mrs. Susan Armstrong; and Henry, who spent his life at Romney.

Christian S. White, father of the prosecuting attorney, was born in Hampshire County in 1840, and was a volun- teer in the Confederate Army, at first in the infantry and subsequently was commissioned a captain of Company I of the Twenty-third Virginia Cavalry. He was never dis- charged, since his company left the army about the time of the final surrender, started down through the Carelinas but finally came back to Virginia and disbanded. Captain White participated in many battles, was struck with bullets several times, and was twice severely injured and felt the effects of his wounds all through life. After the recon- struction of the state he was elected elerk of the County Court of Hampshire County, and served in that capacity a long period of years, until 1903. He was a lawyer by training, and after leaving public office he was associated in practice with his son, Robert, at Romney until his death on January 21, 1917, at the age of seventy-seven. He was a past master of the Masonie Lodge and was affiliated with the Presbyterian Church, the church of his ancestors.

Capt. C. S. White married Catherine Steele, whose father, Thomas Steele, was the first secretary of the Grand Lodge of Odd Fellows of West Virginia and served the order in that capacity until his deathı. Thomas Steele was a native of Dublin, Ireland, and died in the early '80s and is buried at Grafton, West Virginia. His daughter Catherine was also born in Dublin, was seven years of age when her parents came to the United States, and she grew up at Fairmont and was married there. She died in 1914, at the age of seventy-two. Her children were: Louisa A., of Romney; Robert; Christian S., Jr., superintendent of mines in Southwest West Virginia; Bessie, wife of B. C. Howard of Baltimore. The first wife of Capt. C. S. White was Bessie Shultz, and their only child was John Baker White, who became a member of the Charleston bar.

Robert White, the prosecuting attorney, was born at Romney, May 28, 1876. He attended the public schools at his native tewn, and at the age of sixteen began ac- quiring his first experience in public affairs as deputy elerk of the County Court under his father. At the age of eighteen he graduated from the old Potomac Academy, and two years later began the study of law in West Vir- ginia University. He was graduated in 1899 and, return- ing to Romney, soon had a promising practice. From 1903 he was associated with his father until 1912, when he was eleeted for his first term as prosecuting attorney, succeed- ing J. S. Zimmerman. He has since been twice reelected

to the same office. During his term of office the good roads movement has received a great impetus in Hampshire County, und the first conerete bridge wus built by the County Court after he became prosecuting attorney. Mr. White comes of a family devoted to democratic principles. and he east his first vote for president for Mr. Bryan in 1900. Hle is a past master of the Masonie Lodge and is also affiliated with the Odd Fellows.

January 7, 1903, at Washington D. C., Mr. White married Miss Mabel Glasseock Fitch, a native of Vanecburg, Ken- tueky, and daughter and only child of E. II. and Laura (Glasscock) Fitch. She attended Marshall College at Ituntingten while her family resided there, and finished her education in Washington. Mr. and Mrs. White had five children: John Baker, Mabel Glasgow, Elizabeth Steele, Roberta Huston and Robert, Jr. Mrs. White, the mother of these children, died July 5, 1915. She was an active mem- ber of the Presbyterian Church.

HON. HUGH A. DUNN. Since 1900 Hon. Hugh A. Dunn has been a member of the Beekley bar, and during this long period of time had made steady advancement, being accounted today one of the leading members of the Raleigh County legal profession. He is likewise a prominent and influential member of the republican party, and has on numerous occasions rendered efficient public service, hav- ing been the ineumbent of various offices, both appointive and elective. He is a native sen of West Virginia, born on a farm at Peterstown, Monroe County, April 12, 1872, a son of James Patterson and Sarah A. (Workman) Dunn.

Both the Workman and Dunn families are old and honored ones in Monroe County, of English and Irish descent. James Patterson Dunn was born in Monree County, in 1832, and in young manhood adopted farm- ing, in which he was engaged until enlisting for service in the Union Army during the war between the states. He again engaged in agricultural pursuits after the close of his military service, and continued therein until his death in 1917, when he was accounted one of the well-to- do men of his community. He was an active republican in politics, was a deacon in the Baptist Church for years and was president of the Board of Education in his distriet for two terms. Mrs. Dunn died at the age of seventy-two years, in- 1915. They were the parents of five children: John P., a farmer, steekraiser and merchant of Princeton, Mereer County, West Virginia; Mary E., the widow of J. C. Lucas, of Peterstown, Monroe County, died May 7, 1922; James W., who is engaged in farming in the vicinity of Snyder, Oklahoma; Robert E. Lee, formerly an engineer on the Norfolk & Western Railroad, later a locomotive en- gineer in the Southwest, whence he went to Cuba, finally be- came an engineer in Panama, on the Panama Railroad, where he lost his life on his second trip across the Isthmus, on July 23, 1906; and Hugh A.

Hugh A. Dunn attended the free schools of Monroe County, and at Athens pursued a course at the Concord Normal. He began to teach school at the age of eighteen years, and for ten or twelve terms continued as a teacher, in the meantime being married the first time. While teaching he had applied himself to the study of law, and in 1897 entered the University of West Virginia, where he took the law course and was graduated in 1899, with his degree of LL. B. In the following year he located fer practice at Beekley, where he has since made rapid strides in his profession and attracted a large and representative clientele. In 1909 he formed a law partnership with John M. Ander- son, an association which continued until 1921, when Mr. Anderson was elevated to the beneh of the Criminal Court. From 1901 until 1905 Mr. Dunn was United States con- missioner, and in 1906 was elected mayor of Beckley. In 1907, during President Roosevelt'a administration, he was appointed assistant United States attorney of the Treasury Department, with headquarters at New York City, where he remained for nearly a year. In 1909 he became presenting attorney of Raleigh County, a position in which he served until 1913, and again served as mayor of the City of Beckley, in 1914 and 1915. His entire publie service has been characterized by capable and conscientious

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performance of duty and high ideals of the responsibilities of public servants. A republican in politics, he has been active in party work, and has served as chairman of the county committee and attended state and county conven- tions. His fraternal affiliations include membership in the Masons, the Modern Woodmen of America, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.

On December 24, 1893, Mr. Dunn was united in marriage with Miss Virginia Gertrude Basham, daughter of John L. Basham, of Peterstown, West Virginia, and she died two years and three months later, leaving one son, Oakley Waiteman Dunn, who is now in the employ of the Gulf Smokeless Coal Company at Tams, Raleigh County, West Virginia. In March, 1918, he volunteered for service in the United States Army, and was assigned to the air service and trained at Kelly Field, San Antonio, Texas. He was at Newport News, ready for embarkation for overseas duty, when the news of the signing of the armistice was flashed to this country. On January 3, 1913, Hugh A. Dunn was united in marriage with Mrs. Mollie (Bailey) Trump, daughter of George Bailey, of Beekley, and widow of Robert Trump. By her former mar- riage Mrs. Dunn has one son, Robert S. Trump, now with the Raleigh County Bank at Beckley, West Virginia, who in April, 1919, enlisted in the United States Navy and served until honorably discharged in 1921. Mr. and Mrs. Dunn have one daughter, Eula Edna, born in 1914, who is attending school.

HENSHAW FAMILY. The Henshaw family, one of the most honored names in West Virginia, was founded in the American colonies by Joshua Henshaw, born in Eng- land in 1672. Through the act of a dishonest executor he was shipped to Massachusetts and thus deprived of the inheritance of a large property left by his father. His son, John, engaged in business at Dorchester, Massachusetts, and later moved to Philadelphia. After passing the middle period of his life, consulting with his oldest son, Nicholas, they journeyed together to the colony of Virginia, and after examining the country decided to move their families to the beautiful valley between the Blue Ridge and Great North Mountain, called by General Washington "The Garden of America." John Henshaw bought a tract of land from Lord Fairfax in Frederick County, about thirteen miles from Winchester, and subsequently was the means of inducing a number of other families to locate in the then wilderness. His own home was erected on Mill Creek. He died a wealthy and influential man, having established a reputation for honor, honesty, progressiveness and justice.

Nicholas, of the third generation, and son of John, was born in 1705, and died August 19, 1777. His wife, Rebecca, accompanied him to Virginia. Their son, William, was born at Mill Creek, the family homestead in Berkeley County, March 16, 1736, and died in June, 1799. He was educated by private tutors. In 1775 he was one of the first volunteers in the company raised by Col. Hugh Stephenson in Berkeley County for the Continental Army. He was elected one of the lieutenants. He was with the company in the three days of successive skirmishing at King's Bridge, New York, He was also in the battle of Point Pleasant prior to the outbreak of the Revolution. There are many references in published work to the serv- ices he rendered the cause of American independence. He married about 1767, Agnes Anderson, a beautiful woman and a belle of Colonial Virginia. Her father, William Anderson, was descended from an ancestor who arrived at Jamestown in 1634.

Levi Henshaw, oldest of the eleven children of William and Agnes (Anderson) Henshaw, was born July 22, 1769, and died September 9, 1843, spending all his life at Mill Creek, Berkeley County. He was educated in private schools and devoted his active career to planting and mill- ing. He was elected justice of the peace in 1810, and served in the Virginia House of Delegates in 1821-22-30- 31, and in 1840 as sheriff of Berkeley County. He was a vestryman of the Episcopal Church. His first wife was Nancy Davidson, mother of four children. His second

wife was Ann MeConnell, born in 1778 and died in 1838, daughter of William and Mary (Cowen) McConnell. Levi Henshaw was the father of fourteen children altogether.

His eleventh child, Levi Henshaw (2), was born at the Henshaw homestead on Mill Creek, July 14, 1815, and died February 21, 1896. He was educated in the private schools supported by the families of the neighborhood, became a planter and miller, owning the Henshaw Flour Mills, and throughout his long life was known and honored as a courtly, polished gentleman, and of sterling worth and integrity. Ife was an old-line Whig, voting for Harrison in 1840, and was a republican after the formation of the new party. As justice of the peace he became noted for the impartial justice he meted out to rieh and poor, white and black alike. He was a member of the Masonic Lodge of Shepherdstown, and for years was a vestryman in the Episcopal Church.

December 16, 1851, at Church Hill, Berkeley County, he married Sarah Ann Snodgrass. She was born at Tomahawk Springs in that county, November 1, 1827, daughter of Col. Robert Verdier Snodgrass and Sarah Ann Snodgrass. She was a descendant of William Snodgrass, who with two brothers came to America in the early days of the Eight- eenth century. His first son, Robert Snodgrass, was born in 1742, and died in 1832. Robert, Jr., sixth son of Robert, was born March 16, 1773, and died in 1830. His daughter, Sarah Ann Snodgrass, born October 14, 1806, and died November 21, 1891, married her first cousin, Col. Robert Verdier Snodgrass, a son of Stephen and Elizabeth (Verdier) Snodgrass. Colonel Snodgrass was born in Vir- ginia, September 21, 1792, and died January 6, 1861. He was a descendant of the Verdier family, prominent in the history of the Huguenots in France. Nicholas Verdier came to the colony of Virginia about 1688, and Louise Verdier, wife of Stephen Snodgrass, was his descendant in the fifth generation.

Levi and Sarah Ann (Snodgrass) Henshaw were the parents of ten children, the oldest, Robert Levi, dying in infancy. Lillie, the second child, married Dr. M. S. Butler, of Hedgesville, West Virginia. Annie Laurie became the wife of Edward Claggett Williams, of Martinsburg. Robert Levi married Mildred Shoemaker, lived in Clarinda, Iowa, and is now in Seattle, Washington. Edgar Caven, the fifth child, served as postmaster of Hedgesville, also of Martinsburg, is a horticulturist and vice president of the Peoples Trust Company, and married Sallie M. Lingamfelter. Ella Snodgrass, the sixth child, died in infancy. Valley Virginia married Rev. Francis C. Berry, of Dallas, Texas. Francis died in infancy. The youngest of the family, Mabel and Frances Little, are twins. Frances Little is a graduate of Shepherd College State Normal School, and a teacher in the city schools of Martins- burg.

Mabel IIenshaw graduated from New Windsor College, Maryland, and taught from 1898 to 1903 in the Fairmont State Normal, being then transferred to Shepherd College State Normal School of West Virginia. She received her A. B. degree from the West Virginia University in 1915. She is the wife of Dr. I. H. Gardiner, of Baltimore. Her daughter, Anna Henshaw Gardiner, is a graduate nurse and enlisted in the World war May 30, 1917, and was a nurse in France for twenty months. Her son, Robert Henry Gardiner, is a pharmacist, a graduate of the University of Maryland.

C. A. FLEGER, M. D. Numbered among the self-sacrific- ing and skilled physicians and surgeons of Boone County, Dr. C. A. Fleger is rendering a wonderfully efficient serv- ice in the mining camps and mines of this region and establishing a record of which he can well be proud. He was born at Montgomery, Fayette County, West Virginia, August 26, 1881, a son of Joseph and Mary (Fath) Fleger. The paternal grandfather was born in Germany, but came to the United States at an early day and settled in Penn- sylvania, where his son, Joseph Fleger, was born. The paternal grandmother was born in England, of English parents, and she came to this country direct from England. The mother of Doctor Fleger was born in Alsace-Lorraine,

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and was brought to the United States by an uncle when a girl of fifteen years. She was born under the French flag, and her native tongue was French, but before she left AlsaceLorraine that region had come under the Ger- man domination, and the speaking of French was positively forbidden. It was, in part, because of the unhappy con- ditions which arose after the Germans took possession of her old home which led her to seek a new one across the seas. Joseph Fleger was a miner, and a substantial man of Fayette County.

Doctor Fleger attended the public schools of Nicholas County and the Fayette Normal School, from which he se- cured his certificate to teach school, and for two years thereafter he was an educator of Nicholas County, West Virginia. He then began the study of inedieine, and, going to Baltimore, Maryland, attended the Maryland Medical College, from which he was graduated in 1905, with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. Immediately there- after ho entered upon a general practice at Summers- ville, West Virginia, and remained there for about eight years. In 1913 he came to Seth for the Lackawanna Coal & Lumber Company, and has remained at this point ever since. He is now the physician and surgeon for the Rock- castle Lumber Company and the Laurel Creek Coal Con- pany, and his work takes him into the lumber camps and the coal mines. During the late war, he was examining physician for the Draft Board of his distriet, and did everything else in his power to aid the administration to carry out its policies.

In 1907 Doctor Fleger married at Summersville, Miss Emma Umbarger, a daughter of Robert and Orinoeo Um- barger, farming people of Virginia. Doctor and Mrs. Fleger have two children: Robert and Lucile. They he- long to the Methodist Episcopal Church. Fraternally he maintains membership with the Masons, in which he has been advanced to the thirty-second degree, and the Mystic Shrine, the Odd Fellows and the Knights of Pythias. Since he east his first ballot Doctor Fleger has been a zealous republican, but he has not cared to come before the public for office except as a member of the School Board. Professionally he belongs to the Kanawha County Medical Society, the West Virginia State Medical Society and the American Medical Association. The work Doetor Fleger is now doing necessitates much self-sacrifice, but he recognizes that in these connections he is able to ac- complish much, and render an aid that is greatly needed. While he has not entered public life, he takes a warm interest in the welfare of his home community, and always gives a cheerful and hearty support to those measures looking toward its advancement. Personally he is very popular, and among the men to whom he ministers he is held in the deepest affection.

REUEL EDWIN SHERWOOD, of Charleston, official court re- porter and secretary of the West Virginia Coal Mining Institute, has been conspicuously a man of diversified in- terests and experiences. He has courted the dangers of military service, and as a man of action has sought the front line of activities in various fields.

He was born at Newark Valley, Tioga County, New York, in 1878, son of E. A. and Polly (Woodmansee) Sherwood, who in 1882 established their home at Parkers- burg, West Virginia. Through his mother Mr. Sherwood is of Revolutionary ancestry and has membership in the Sons of the American Revolution.

He grew up and received his early schooling in Parkers- burg. In 1898, at the age of twenty, he joined the West Virginia Volunteers for service in the Spanish-American war, and was in the training camp at Chickamauga. Later by re-enlistment he went to the Philippine Islands, was in service during the insurrection there, and for several years remained in the volunteer army in the Philippines. He achieved the difficult promotion of rising from the status of an enlisted man to an officer in the Volunteer Army. After leaving the army service Captain Sherwood remained in the Philippines and was treasurer and vice governor of the Province of Masbate under Governor William Howard

Taft. His experience in the Philippines covered a period altogether of ten years.

After returning to the United States Captain Sherwood established his home at Charleston. Ho was made assistant adjutant general of the state under Adj .- Gen. C. E. Elliott, and as such served throughout the strikes and riots in the Cabin Creek Mining Distriet in 1912. Subsequently he took up shorthand reporting as a profession. He estali- lished offices in Charleston, now in the Professional Build- ing, and has organized a complete service, employing a staff of expert shorthand reporters. He is official reporter for the three courts in Charleston, the Circuit Court, In- termediate Court and Court of Common Pleas. He is also official reporter for all their sessions in West Virginia of the Interstate Commerco Commission, United States Court of Claims and the Federal Trade Commission. Through his staff he handles practically all the convention reporting work in the state and an extensive legal report ing business in the various courts.

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History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 2, Part 209

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