History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 2, Part 21

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la 1899 Harry G. Williams graduated frem the high school at Richland, Tazewell County, Virginia, and for three years thereafter he was a student in the private academy condueted by Professor MeIlvain at Bowen Cove, Virginia. He then took a position in the First National Bank of Montgomery, Indiana, where he remained eighteen months. He then came to Williamson, West Virginia. to assume the position of assistant cashier of the First National Bank,

a position which he retained uatil December, 1911, when he resigned and forthwith established his present real estate and insurance business, in which he has achieved unequivocal success. lle has been decisively progressivo and public spirited as a citizen, and while he has had no desire for publie office he gave four years of effective service as a member of the Board of Education ut Williamson. In the World war period he was chairman of the local Draft Board, was a vigorous worker in the driveg in support of patriotic objeets, including the Government wur lonns, and wny trens- urer of the local chapter of the Red Cross, a position which he still retains. Mr. Williams is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity, is a valued member of the local Kiwanis Club. is an active member of the Williamson Lodge of Elky, and ho and his wife hold membership in the Presbyterian Church in their home city.

At Montgomery, West Virginia, a town named in honor of the family of which his wife is a representativo in the maternal line, Mr. Williams was united in marriage, in 1906, with Miss Myrtle Smith, a daughter of Green and Willie (Montgomery ) Smith, Mr. Smith being a leading contractor and builder at Montgomery. Mr. and Mrs. Williams have a winsome little daughter, Octavia.

JOHN R. LITTLE, the superintendent of Fall River Mines, Fall River Pocahontas Collieries Company at Ruderfield, MeDowell County, is one of the efficient and popular execu tives in the coal mining industry in this section of his na- tive state, his birth having oeeurred near Wyoming, Mercer County, West Virginia, September 24, 1550. He is a son of Iliram and Martha Ann ( Ilearn) Little, the former of whom was born near Charleston, this state, and the Intter near Oakvale, Mercer County. The father died in 1906, at the age of fifty-two years, and the mother now resides at Coaldale, Mereer County, she being sixty seven years of age at the time of this writing, in the winter of 1921 2. As & young man Hiram Little was a successful teacher in the schools of Mercer and Wyoming counties, and thereafter he was a merchant at Basin and Crumpler, which latter place was thea known as Burks Garden. In his progressive busi- ness career he became agent for the Flat Top Laad Com- pany, in which connection he obtained options and pur- chased many traets of timber and coul land in Wyoming. MeDowell and Raleigh counties, beside doing a large amount of surveying of lands now owned by representative coal com- panies. As a boy of twelve years Hiram Little became a member of the Methodist Church, in which he became a local preacher and in the work of which he continued active and zealous until the time of his death, his widow likewise IM- ing a devoted member of this elmurch. He was also a vital and enthusiastie advocate of the principles of the republicnn party, and was an effective campaign speaker. Of the seven children of the family two died in infancy; Thomas Levi is superintendent of a coal company at Herndon, Wyoming County; John R., of this sketch, was the next in order of birth; Robert S. is a mine foreman at Conldale; Edgar B. is a farmer and dairyman at Roanoke, Virginia; and Mar- garet is the wife of Jolin Clendennin, of Roanoke, McDowell County, West Virginia.

John R. Little attended schul at Crumpler, MeDowell County, and the Billups School in Tazewell County, Virginia, where the family home was maintained two years. When still a boy he began working in the Shamokin mines at Maybeury, where he remained two years. Ile was next em ployed in the Elkhorn mine, at the same place, and later for two years he had charge of a general store at Maybeury. Ile then became a foreman at the Elkhora Mine, of which he was later made superintendent, and in 1918 he assumed his present executive post, that of superintendent of the Fall River Mine. Like his father, Mr. Little has taken deep in. terest in educational work, and he served as a member of the School Board of Brown Creek District. IIe has had no desire for political activity, but is a loyal supporter of the cause of the republican party.

In March, 1906, Mr. Little wedded Miss Cora Ta or. daughter of A. J. Tabor, of Coaldale, and the children uf this union are five sons and five daughters.

HISTORY OF WEST VIRGINIA

SAMUEL W. PATTERSON was one of the first officials on the ground in the development of the coal property of the Bottom Creek Coal & Coke Company at Vivian in McDowell County. He has lived there since December, 1891, and has become a successful and widely known coal operator in that section of the state.

Mr. Patterson was born in Elk County, Pennsylvania, September 24, 1863, son of Thomas N. and Rachel (Spen- cer) Patterson. The Pattersons were a family of Irish, Scotch and English origin, while the Spencers were Eng- lish. Mr. Patterson comes of several branches of substan- tial New England stock, including the Howland and Deni- son families. He is a member of the John Howland Society. His parents were both born in Pennsylvania, his father at Mauch-Chunk. Thomas N. Patterson took up the profes- sion of medicine, but soon abandoned it to engage in coal mining, and later became manager for J. C. Haydon at Mahanoy City, Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, then one of the largest operators in Carbon County, Pennsylvania.

Samuel W. Patterson graduated from high school in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, and at the age of sixteen entered his father's office. There he acquired a thorough knowledge of the coal industry, being afforded every oppor- tunity to familiarize himself with the business and techni- cal branches of the business. His uncle, William Spencer, had acquired an interest in coal lands in West Virginia. With this interest as the basis there was organized in 1891 at Pottsville Pennsylvania, the Bottom Creek Coal & Coke Company. The company selected and sent as its practical representatives to the field William Spencer and Samnel W. Patterson, the latter as secretary and treasurer of the company. Later he became president and general manager. The Norfolk & Western Railroad was then constructing its main line west into this section, but at the time Mr. Patter- son had to walk from what is now Kyle to Vivian, the loca- tion of the Bottom Creek Company's property. He has been here ever since and has had active supervision of all phases of the development of the property. He is still at his post of duty as mine manager. With his brother, George S., he organized the Sycamore Coal Company of Cinderella, Mingo County, West Virginia, and is president of that com- pany, and is also vice president of the Majestic Collierics Company, Majestic, Kentucky.

In 1903, at Brooklyn, New York, Mr. Patterson married Miss Mary Cleveland, daughter of Charles W. and M. Isa- bel (Torrey) Cleveland, both representing old families of Pennsylvania and New York State. . Mr. and Mrs. Patter- son have one son, Thomas Cleveland.

MEREDITH J. SIMMS, now a prominent citizen of Charles- ton, achieved his conspicuous place in business and public affairs in Fayette County, West Virginia, where for thirty- five years he was active as a merchant, banker and was also president of the County Court.

The Simms family is an old one in America, of an Eng- lish ancestry running back for four or five centuries. The grandfather of Judge Simms was P. William Simms, who was born on the Gauley River in West Virginia, February 2, 1804, was a farmer and blacksmith by occupation, and died in 1895. He married Elizabeth Dorsey, a native of Greenbrier County. One of their eight children was Frank- lin Pilcher Simms, who was born on the Gauley River in 1831, and for many years owned and operated a large farm in Nicholas County. He married Eliza Simms, who died in 1910.

Meredith J. Simms, one of the thirteen children of his parents, was born on a farm in Nicholas County, April 9, 1862. After 1873 the family moved to Fayette County, where he finished his public school education, and he began his business career in 1886 at Montgomery as bookkeeper for the Strangham Coal Company. He resigned in 1889 to become postmaster throngh appointment of President Har- rison, and after retiring from that office four years later he engaged in merchandising and in the wholesale bottling business, and gradnally his interests took on a wide scope, involving affairs of great financial prominence in that section of the state. He was formerly president of the Montgomery & Cannelton Bridge Company, and was also

president of the Montgomery National Bank. He ri linquished these various interests when he moved t Charleston.

Jndge Simms was a delegate to the National Republica Convention in 1896 when William Mckinley was nominated and to the convention of 1912 when William H. Taft wa nominated. He was for four successive terms, twenty-fou years, a member of the County Court of Fayette County and was president or judge of the court about twent years. On account of this judicial service he is alway known as Judge Simms. He is a member of the Elk Order.

At St. Albans, West Virginia, January 3, 1887, he mar ried Alwilda Ramson, daughter of William and Mar (DeFore) Ramson. She was born in Jackson County, Wes Virginia, December 25, 1860, and is likewise descended from a long line of ancestry, reaching back to pre-Colonial day" Mary DeFore was of Hugenot descent, the founders of th family in America having been among that colony o Huguenots who came from France to Charleston, South Card lina, in. 1689. The DeFore family later located in Appc mattox County, Virginia.

Five children were born to Judge and Mrs. Simms, a follows: Forest DeFore, born December 29, 1887, die February 16, 1914. Ira, born December 22, 1889, marrie Rnth Shrewsbury, of Charleston, and has a son, Meredith now five years of age. Ira served with the American arm during the Mexican border troubles and following thi volunteered for service in the war with Germany, bein assigned to the aviation service. Mary Mabel, born Janı ary 28, 1892. died September 20, 1894. Maude was bor May 13, 1895. Agnes Genc, born June 28, 1897, is now the widow of Dr. Ira M. Derr, whom she married June 2 1918. Doctor Derr enlisted in the service of his country was commissioned a first lieutenant, and assigned to dut at Spartansburg, South Carolina, where he died in the serv ice, November 6, 1918.

Judge Simms with his family removed to Charleston i 1920 to make his permanent home. His residence occupie; a beautiful and spacions site on Columbia Boulevard, at th corner of Vine Street, on the banks of the Kanawha Rive and overlooking the beautiful valley. It is one of th handsomest homes in the city, with spacious lawns an: gronnds.

In conclusion the writer cannot fail to draw some signif cance from the immediate and generous welcome given t Judge Simms and family on their removal to Charleston This has been in the nature of a tribute to his high standin. as a successful man of affairs. Though in the city less tha two years, he has served as a member of the Charleston Cit Council, is active vice president of the West Side Busines Men's Club, is a member of the Charleston Chamber o Commerce and the Real Estate Board. While he does no consider himself an active business man, he still has larg interests in real estate and to some extent in oil develor ment.

COL. WILLIAM LECKIE was one of the big, strong kindly and generous men of the West Virginia coal fields A native of Scotland, son of a Scotch miner, he came t the United States when a young man, finished his education in American schools and by private study, worked in an around mines for a number of years, and rose from variou positions of responsibility to be a leading mine operator He developed some of the best coal openings in Southern West Virginia.

William Leckie was born in Ayreshire, Scotland, on Octo ber 4, 1857, a son of Samuel and Katherine Mcclellan Leckie. He was the oldest of fourteen children. As a bo' he worked on a farm and in the coal mines of Scotland At the age of twenty-one he came to America and located in Shenandoah. Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania. His fathe and mother. brothers and sisters followed about six month later. William Leckie entered the mines as repairman, and by industry and economy he earned the money to ente Dickenson Seminary at Williamsport, Pennsylvania, where he was a student for two and a half years. In 1882 he wa appointed fire-boss for the Philadelphia & Reading Coal &

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HISTORY OF WEST VIRGINIA

o Company; a year later he was with the Buek Mountain al Company as inside foreman; and as ambition and thfulness won for him recognition and rapid advaneo- ut he became, successively, listriet superintendent for " Lehigh & Wilkes-Barre Coal Company; general superin- lident of the Lehigh Valley Coal, York Farm & Black- vod Collieries; general superintendent of the Webster tal & Coke Company; and, finally, general manager of the Jval Hanna Conl & Coke Company.

On November 26, 1881, William Leekie married Annie Kolb, daughter of the Rev. F. H. Kolb, a Presbyterian inister, of Shenandoah, Pennsylvania. An interested irer in his work and witness of his experiences was Mrs. ekie, and the inspiration of his ambitions and best en- avors. She made it a rule always to be present at each ening, when the first ear of coal was taken out.

In 1901 William Leekie came to the Pocahontas Coal elds as superintendent of the Pocahontas Collieries Com- ny, the pioneer mines of this famons field. He developed d built up these mines, which were later bonght by the xcahontas Consolidated Collieries Company. He remained this position until 1907, when he went into business for nself and established the following operating companies, which he was president and general manager: The West rginia Pocahontas Coal Company, with mines at Leekie, est Virginia and general offices in New York, the Lathrop al Company and Panther Coal Company, mines at Pan- er, West Virginia, the Leekie Collieries Company, mines Aflex, Kentucky, and Leekie Fire Creek Coal Company d Douglas Coal Company, with mines at Fireeo, West rginia, the general offices of the last four being at Weleh, est Virginia, where Mr. Leckie lived for many years. He is also the chief incorporator and president of several nd-holding companies, the Pond Creek Coal & Land Com- ny, the Leekie-Ramsay Coal Company, the Cub Creek al Company, and the Leekie Smokeless Coal Company, e latter company owning a large aereage of nndeveloped al lands in Greenbrier County, West Virginia. The 'ekie Coal Company, a selling ageney, with offices at Nor- 1k, Virginia, and Columbus, Ohio, handles the output of e operating companies. Mr. Leekie was president of the rst National Bank of Anawalt, West Virginia, of the Quefield National Bank at Bluefield, and a direetor in the irst National Bank of Weleh.

Colonel Leekie was a life-long Presbyterian, and was an der in the chnreb at Weleb. He was a member of all the asonie orders, of the Bluefield Lodge of Elks, also of the otary Club, the Chamber of Commerce and the Country ub of Bluefield. Only a few short weeks before his death lonel and Mrs. Leekie moved to their new home on Oak- irst Avenue in Bluefield, and it was there that he died on ovember 16, 1920. Five of a family of six children sur- ve him: Nellie, wife of Dr. S. J. Kell, of Bluefield; An- ew F., of Weleh; and William S., of Williamson, who now ive the management of the coal properties; Douglas E., ho is in the real estate business in Bluefield; and Miriam, ho is the wife of Dr. M. B. Moore, of Huntington.

Colonel Leekie never forgot his own early struggles as a iner. lle understood the miner's viewpoint, and he made le living and social conditions of his eamps one of his rst considerations in building up an operation. Much of s success is attributed to his capacity for leadership of ie men in his employ. He was a disciplinarian, but not a hip-eraeking task-master; he was casy to approach and his 'nse of justice and generosity won the loyal friendship f his employes and kept his operations free from labor ·oubles.

He was a broad-gauged, whole-souled man and a good tizen, thoroughly imbued with the highest spirit of Amer- anism.

MARION TIVIS BALL. An exemplification of self-made lanhood is found in the career and person of Marion T. all, of Williamson, Mingo County. A man of prominence nd influence in bis community, he has risen solely through je medium of his own efforts and well-applied industry, or he entered upon his career with nothing but an indif- erent education to aid him and was forced to depend holly upon his own resources.

Mr. Ball was born February 21, 1961, in Fiko County, Kentucky, a son of Jesse and Jaor ( Keith) Ball, native of Virginin. The Ball family is one that dates its ancestry back to early Colonial days in Virginia, while the Keiths originated in Ireland. ,Jesse Ball wn« n minister of the Methodist Episcopal faith, which he followed in Virginn. llis nine children were renred in Kentucky.

The youngest child in a large family, with the only menns of support the meager and uncertain snlnry of a country preacher, Marion Tivis Ball had few of the plensures nnd advantages that are considered youth's innlienable right in these days. In fact he considered himself lucky to be able to get an education in the country school, which he finished when he was fourteen years of age, with the exception of some irregular attendance during the winter months on several later occasions. When he was fourteen he began to add to the family income by working in n sawmill. nud during the six years that he was thus engaged mastered the business in numerous of its particulars. He then took up carpentry as a voention, and this occupation he followed with success for some twenty years. Next, he accepted a position with the Hurst Hardware Company of William son, and while associated with Mr. Hurst in the furniture division of the store, became familiar with the undertaking business. In 1913 Mr. Ball purchased the undertaking de partment of Mr. Hurst's establishment, and since then has devoted his time to this voention. Mr. Ball hns the tart and diplomacy necessary for his chosen line of work, into which he brings the latest methods for the reverent care of the dead.

In 188], while a resident of Pike County, Kentucky, Mr. Ball was united in marriage with Dorray Casebolt, n daugh ter of William and Lottie Casebolt, natives of Kentucky. and to this nnion there have been born five children: Rol,- ert Edgar, associated with his father in the undertaking business at Williamson, who married Willa Lowther; Vir ginia Stella, who married Lee Fentor Morris, of William son, and has one child, Naney Lou, born in 1921; Lewellyn Ferne, who married Guy Hobson Hughes of Williamson ; Goebel Keith and Marion Tabor. The family belongs to the Presbyterian Church except Mr. Ball, who is an adherent of the Methodist Episcopal faith. He belongs to the Ki- wanis Club, and as a Mason holds membership in the Blue Lodge and Chapter at Williamson, the Knights Tempinr at Huntington, the Seottish Rite at Wheeling and is a member of Beni-Kedem Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S. of Charleston, West Virginia. His support is always given to worthy civie movements, and he can be counted upon to contribute to those measures which have for their object the raising of standards of morality and citizenship.

EDWARD K. MAHAN. West Virginia is still one of the more important states of the Union in the production of hardwood, and one of the largest organizations in the state for the manufacture and handling of such resources is the Peytona Lumber Company, of which Edward K. Mahan, of Huntington, is president.

Mr. Mahan's great great grandfather came from the North of Ireland to America in Colonial times and founded the family in Virginia. The grandfather of the Hunting. ton lumberman was Nelson Maban, who was born in Vir ginia in 1806, lived for a number of years in Monroe County. West Virginia, in 1842 moved to Kanawha County, and die.l at Charleston in 188%. His principal business was contract ing for publie works, and among others he constructed the loeks and dams on the Coal River. His wife was Sarah Legg, who also died at Charleston.

John W. Mahan, father of Edward K., was born in Mon- roe County, March 24. 1641. Hle was a lumber manufac turer with mills at Catlettsburg, Kentucky, and in Fayette County, West Virginia, where a village grew up around his mills named in his honor, Mahan. From 1691 until his death his home was at Huntington in Cabell County, but he died in a hospital at Charleston August 5, 1905. Ile bad a record of a Confederate soldier of the Civil war, serving throughout that confliet with the border rangers under General Jenkins and General MeCauslands.

John W. Mahan married Romaine Myers, who was born

HISTORY OF WEST VIRGINIA

at Gallipolis, Ohio, in 1850 and died at Washington, D. C., June 9, 1916. They were the parents of five children: Romaine, wife of Dr. William E. Philes, a physician and surgeon at Washington, D. C .; Edward K .; Mabel F., liv- ing at Washington, D. C., widow of George T. Paige, a resident of Sioux Falls, South Dakota; Jane, wife of an attorney, Marion Eustace, at Caldwell, Idaho; and Clara, wife of Arthur B. York, an attorney at Staunton, Virginia.

Edward K. Mahan was born at Madison in Boone County, West Virginia, August 16, 1878. In 1904 he removed to Mansfield, Ohio, and was in the wholesale lumber business. In 1906 he assisted in organizing the Peytona Lumber Company, becoming its secretary, and since 1915 has been its president. This company, with business offices in the Robson-Pritchard Building at Huntington, has mills and other facilities for the manufacture and wholesale han- dling of hardwood lumber and do an immense business in this line. Mr. Mahan is also a stockholder and director in the Huntington Banking and Trust Company, and is presi- dent of the Elk Creek Lumber Company.

His home is at 2678 Third Avenue in Huntington. In March, 1901, at Catlettsburg, Kentucky, Mr. Mahan mar- ried Miss Victoria Williamson, daughter of Benjamin and Pauline ( Taylor) Williamson. Mr. and Mrs. Mahan have one child, Virginia, born May 9, 1902.

JOSEPH N. DOYLE, present county engineer of Cabell County, has had a wide experience and numerous responsi- bilities in the civil and construction engineering profession. He is a native of Huntington, where his father at one time was a foundryman and manufacturer.

Mr. Doyle was born at Huntington, May 19, 1887. His grandfather was a native of Ireland, and on coming to America settled in old Virginia. James Thayer Doyle, fa- ther of the county engineer, was born in Albemarle County, Virginia, in 1844, was reared at Malden, Kanawha County, West Virginia, was married in Huntington, where he owned and operated a machine shop and foundry, and in 1891 removed to Montgomery, where he continued in the same business, his chief output being mining cars. Returning to Huntington in 1893, he went on the road as a salesman for the Ensign Car & Foundry Company, now a branch of the American Car & Foundry Company. From 1900 until his death in 1916 James T. Doyle was a mechanic in the service of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad. He was a democrat, and a deacon and very enthusiastic member of the Presbyterian Church. He married Lucy Maupin, who was born in Cabell County in 1849, and died at Baltimore in March, 1921. Of their four children the oldest is James E., a general and road contractor of Huntington; Mary Alice is the wife of H. S. Gresser, in the automobile busi- ness at Washington, D. C .; Joseph N. is the third in age; and Caroline Hope is the wife of Robert L. Hooven, also in the automobile business at Washington.

Joseph N. Doyle acquired a public school education at Huntington, graduating from high school in 1905 and al- most immediately became an employe of the Leete-Maupin Engineering Company at Huntington. In the service of this firm he acquired a practical knowledge of civil engi- necring, and worked up to the rank of transit man. Leav- ing Huntington iu 1910, he was for a time located at Indi- anapolis, where he had charge of an engineering party for the Moore-Mansfield Construction Company. On his return to Huntington he did work for A. B. Maupin, his uncle, then city engineer of Huntington, until 1914. In that year he was put in charge of all the field work for the firm Ren- shaw & Breece, mining engineers. In 1916 he and his asso- ciate, under the name of Stulting & Doyle, succeeded by purchase to the professional business of Renshaw & Breece, and for a year continued the work in civil and mining engi- neering. Mr. Doyle then sold out to Stulting and formed the firm of Doyle Brothers, his brother James E. being his associate. They continued civil and mining engineering until the winter of 1919, since which date Mr. Doyle has continued alone and is one of the leading authorities on mining engineering in the state. His offices are at 3201/2 Ninth Street.

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History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 2, Part 21

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