History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 2, Part 27

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Benjamin W. Mckeever, father of Doctor M Krever, was born in the Wardensville community in 1-12, and carly it the Civil war joined the Confederate army as a member of the Thirty-third Virginia Cavalry, under General Imhod n. Among other engagements he was in the battle of New Market. He served as a private and after the war fol owe I merchandising at Edom in Rockingham County, but finally returned to his native county and established his home at Wardensville. He was a member of the Hardy County Court, was a democrat and a Lutheran, and died at War densville in 1903 at the age of sixty-one. Benjamin W MeKeever married Mattie Neff, who was born in Shenan doah County, Virginia, in 1-54, on her father's fnrm lr tween Mount Jackson and New Market. She is now living. at the age of sixty-nine. She is the mother of three chi dren: Doctor MeKeever: Bernice, of Wardensville, wilow of James A. Ileishman; and Irene, Mrs. R. L. Husong, of Buffalo, New York.

Arthur N. Mckeever was seven years of age when its parents left Rockingham County and established their hine at Wardensville, the rural village on the cast side of Hardy County, where he grew to manhood. He laid the foun lati n fer his literary education in the village schools then sju it two years in Roanoke College at Salem, Virginia, purself a literary-business course, and from there entered the I'ni- versity of Maryland at Baltimore, graduating from the dental department in the summer of 1495. He at en . established his office at Romney, and was the first resid nt dentist to practice there. and has been the leader in his profession for nearly thirty years.

Doctor MeKeever is a former mayor of Romney. During his administration the water system was installed and the first eonerete sidewalks constructed. He also organized and was president of the Romney Improvement Company, with installed the sewer system for the town. He was one of the organizers and the first president of the First National Bank.

During the World war he was designated by the governor as dental examiner for the Local Draft Board. Governer A. B. White commissioned him a member of the Board of Regents of the Keyser branch of West Virginia University and he was one of the committee for the building of the school at Keyser and served four years as regent. Governor Glasseock appointed him a notary public, and he was recom- missioned by Govervor Cornwell. IJe served with the rauk of colonel on the staff of Governor Hatfield throughout bis four-year term.

HISTORY OF WEST VIRGINIA

Doctor Mckeever is a republican, casting his first vote for Major Mckinley for President, and in former years attended numerous party conventions and is still a member of the Second District Congressional Committee. He is a past master of Romney Lodge of Masons, a past district deputy grand master, a member of Keyser Chapter, R. A. M., the Knight Templar Commandery at Martinsburg, the Ancient Order of United Workmen and belongs to Martins- burg Lodge, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.

At Frostburg, Maryland, September 20, 1904, Doctor Me- Keever married Miss Katie Keller, daughter of Joseph and Susie (Brooke) Keller. Her father was connected with a mining company. Mrs. McKeever was born at Frostburg in December, 1873, and her musical talents were thoroughly trained, and she finished her education in the Peabody Insti- tute at Baltimore. She was a teacher of music before her marriage. Doctor and Mrs. McKeever have two daughters, Martha and Josephine.

THOMAS W. GOCKE, one of the substantial business men of Piedmont, has been identified with the history of Mineral County for a quarter of a century, and is the representative in this region of the J. C. Orrick & Son Company. He was horn at Howesville, Preston County, West Virginia, May 13, 1864, a son of John J. and Catherine (Wesling) Gocke, natives of the province of Brandenburg, Germany, who were married in the United States, to which the father had come in 1840. He first lived at Cumberland, Maryland, and later at Tunnelton, West Virginia, being there until after the completion of the first tunnel. Soon afterward he bought a farm at Howesville, and continued to conduct it until his death in 1892, when he was sixty-eight years old. He was married after coming to Preston County, and the mother survived him until 1910, when she passed away at Clarks- burg, West Virginia, aged eighty-seven years. They had thirteen children, eight of whom grew up, were married and reared families, but only four are now living, they being: Thomas W., whose name heads this review; James B., who is a resident of Los Angeles, California; Vincent E., who is a resident of Clarksburg, West Virginia; and Emma S., who is the wife of John E. Mattingly, of Cincinnati, Ohio.

Growing up on his father's farm, Thomas Gocke attended the local schools and learned habits of industry and thrift from his watchful parents. Taking upon himself the re- sponsibilities of manhood, he went to Cumberland, Maryland, and became a salesman for the J. C. Orrick & Son Company, and has remained with this corporation ever since. While at Cumberland Mr. Gocke covered a territory including Preston and Mineral counties, West Virginia, and Garrett County, Maryland, but in 1900 was transferred to Piedmont when his company opened a branch in this region, and was given his present territory, which includes the Piedmont, Keyser and Georges Creek districts. Investing in the stock of his company, he now is one of the large stockholders and a mem- ber of its board of directors.

The J. C. Orrick & Son Company, one of the most reliable concerns in the East, was established in 1863, at Cumber- land, Maryland, by J. C. Orrick, who remained at its head during the remainder of his active life, and saw it develop from a small wholesale house to a corporation with many branches, doing a business of $1,000 000 annually. For a time a branch house was maintained at Grafton, West Vir- ginia, but the business is now done by the Piedmont and Cumberland houses. The president and general manager of the company is William Gulland, the Orricks having all passed away.

Mr. Gocke has taken an active part in civic affairs at Piedmont, as he did at Cumberland, and is very active in politics. Casting his first presidential vote for Grover Cleve- land, he has followed the fortunes of the democratic party ever since, and has been his party's delegate upon numerous occasions to the congressional and state conventions, and was particularly zealous in the campaigns of his old boyhood friend, Junior Brown, for Congress, and was his close advisor during his entire career. On February 22, 1914, Mr. Gocke received a reward to which he was entitled in his appointment as postmaster of Piedmont, to succeed George T. Goshorn, and was re-appointed after a service of four

years, filling the office until he resigned, August 29, 1921. While he was postmaster he continued his connection with the Orrick Company, and felt that the burden was too great for him to continue the responsibilities of both posi- tions. He has also served as a member of the Piedmont City Council, and was responsible for the inauguration of the system of sewers. An enthusiastic advocate of the good roads movement, he was instrumental in securing the issue of the $100,000 bond fund for the building of permanent roads, and it is a recognized fact that had he not exerted himself in behalf of this movement it would not have been successful. Public improvements and the public welfare of his home city and county have always been of vital moment to him, and he has always been willing to devote much time and attention to whatever he has believed would work out for the best interests of the majority. During the late war his position as postmaster of Piedmont placed him in the front ranks in all of the drives for all purposes, and he exerted himself to the utmost to aid the administration in carrying out its policies. Mr. Gocke is a member of the Knights of Columbus, of which he has been grand knight, and he has represented the local council in the state council, and has held the office of advocate in the latter body.

On November 20, 1889, Mr. Gocke married at Baltimore, Maryland, Mary F. Kessler, who was born at Butler, Mary- land, a daughter of Peter and Kate (Merryman) Kessler, natives of Switzerland, and Baltimore, Maryland, respec- tively. Mrs. Kessler was a distant relative of Johns Hop- kins, founder of the famous University of Baltimore, Mary- land, which bears his name. Mr. and Mrs. Gocke became the parents of the following children: Dr. William T., who is a graduate of the Baltimore College of Physicians and Surgeons, is engaged in a practice of his profession at Clarksburg, West Virginia; Joseph J., who is connected with the Kenny House at Piedmont; Paul F., who is manager of the above mentioned hotel; Thomas V., who is a student of Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, Penn- sylvania; and Mary Catherine, who is attending the Pied- mont High School. The Gockes are all Roman Catholics. Paul and Joseph Gocke volunteered for service during the World war at the entry of this country into the conflict, and served in the One Hundred and Seventy-third Engineers. They were sent overseas, were for five months in France, and for two months with the Army of Occupation on the Rhine River in Germany. During their period of service they were hospital attaches, and returned home uninjured. Both are members of the American Legion. The youngest son, Thomas V., was a S. A. T. C. student, and was in a training camp in Kentucky, preparing for army life, when the signing of the armistice put an end to the necessity for further troops. Like their father, the Gocke sons are admirable men and good citizens, and valuable additions to any community with which they see fit to con- nect themselves.

HON. ROBERT MCVEIGH DRANE, mayor of Piedmont, and an attorney of note, is one of the leading men of Mineral County, and one whose fame is not confined to local bound- aries. He was born at Frederick City, Maryland, October 15, 1885, a son of Robert H. Drane, born in the '50s in Virginia and reared in his native state, but who completed his educational training at Rockhill College, Maryland, and for some time was a merchant of Cumberland, Maryland. In 1889 he came to Piedmont and established the mercantile house he is still capably conducting. Very active in demo- cratie circles, he has served on the County Central Committee of his party, and was elected on its ticket a member of the Piedmont City Council. As a communicant of Saint James Episcopal Church of Piedmont he is a leader in parish work, and in it, as in everything else he undertakes, he is zealous in behalf of what he considers to be for the best of the majority.

The marriage of Robert H. Drane occurred at Frederick City, Maryland, to Emma Virginia Keller, a daughter of John H. Keller and a native of Frederick. Mr. and Mrs. Robert H. Drane became the parents of the following children: Harry K., who resides at Piedmont; Eleanor E., who married Dr. George B. Gilbert, of Colorado Springs,

H. C. Powell

HISTORY OF WEST VIRGINIA

lorado, and died in that eity; and Robert Mcveigh, whose me heads this review.

Oaly four years old when brought to Piedmont by his rents, Robert MeVeigh Drane has spent practically all of life in this city, and acquired his preliminary education its public schools. Graduated from the high-school course the age of seventeen years, he became a student of the est Virginia University at Morgantown, and was gradu- ed from its legal department in 1907 with the degree of icheler of Laws. Although he began bis practice at Pied- ont, his first case was tried in the Maryland courts in imberland. Ile is engaged in a general criminal and il practice and has never taken a partner. For six years served Piedmont as city attorney, and is counsel for e Davis National Bank of Piedmont and one of the di- tors of this institution. In the spring of 1917 Mr. Drane is first cleeted mayer of Piedmont to succeed Mayor II. ay Shaw, and was re-elected in 1918, 1919 and again in 21, having declined the nomination in 1920, to become a ndidate for the office of prosecuting attorney of Mineral unty on the democratie ticket. Although he made a od campaign, he was defeated in the landslide in favor the republican candidates. During the time he has been Iyor he has succeeded in decreasing the bonded indebted- ss, and has issued bonds for the establishment of a filtra- in system for the city. Mr. Dranc prepared the charter r the City of Piedmont which was passed upon at the ssion of 1913 of the State Assembly. Casting his first esidential vote for William Jennings Bryan in 1908, Mr. ane has continued a firm advocate of democratic princi- ag ever since, and supported Woodrow Wilson during his ministration, although he went to the democratie state nvention of West Virginia as a Clark delegate.

In his fraternity work Mr. Drane was made a member of Kappa Alpha at the university, and he is a Scottish- te Mason, a member of Osiris Temple, Mystic Shrine, the nights of Pythias, and Martinsburg Lodge, B. P. O. E. e is a communicant of Saint James Episcopal Church of .edmont. Mr. Drane is unmarried. During the late war rendered service to the drafted men in filling out their restiennaires, and encouraged the purchase of Liberty bonds by making Four Minute talks all over the county. der the draft he was classified as "A-1," and was ex- 'cting to be called when the armistice was signed. As a wyer Mr. Drane is able, skilled and resourceful, and his ccess is unqualified. As a publie official he has demen- rated his ability to bandle in a capable manner the vari- is problems of civic life, and is one of the most popular these to hold the office of chief executive of the City of .edment.

HARVEY C. POWELL, M. D. Included among the medi- il men of Monengalia County who have attained rec- nition and professional success within a comparatively ort span of years is Dr. Harvey C. Powell, engaged in aetice at Morgantown. He entered his profession with most thorough and comprehensive training, and his sub- quent experience has ineluded labors both at home and road, for he is a veteran of the World war and saw tive service as a member of the Medical Corps on the ttlefields of France.

Deeter Powell was born at Flemington, Taylor County, est Virginia, March 16, 1881, a son of James F. and ary V. (Allen) Powell, natives, respectively, of Tayler d Tyler counties, West Virginia. His paternal grand- ther, Elijah Powell, was born near Winchester, Vir- nia, and married Sarah Cather, of West Virginia. The wells are of Welsh stock and the family was founded this country by the great-grandfather of Doctor Powell, native of Wales. The Allens are of Scotch-Irish stock d came to what is now West Virginia, then Virginia, om Pennsylvania, where the original American ancestor this branch had settled on his arrival in this country. mes F. Powell was engaged in agricultural pursuits until 04, in which year he retired and moved to Morgantown, iere he died in 1911. The mother survives, in her :ty-eighth year. She is a devont Baptist, this denomina- on having been always the family faith. Vol. II-10

The only child of his parents, Harvey C. Powell, spent his early days on the home farm in Tyler County, where he attended the public school. He took one term at Fair. ment (West Virginia) Normal School, and finished his preparatory and pre-medical work at the University of West Virginia. In 1902 he was gradunted with the degree of Doctor of Medicine from the Baltimore Medical Col- lege, and at that timo became house physicinn at Hnskina Hospital, Wheeling, West Virginin. Lnter he became as sociated with Doctor Rau nt the North Wheeling Hospital, Wheeling, after which he spent a year in the West recuper ating his health. In the spring of 1905 he commenced practice at Morgantown, where he made rajd strides in lus profession and gained a large and lucrative practice. Ilis career was interrupted by the outbreak of the World war, and, putting aside his personal interests, he enlisted in the Medical Corps of the United States Army in 1917, on August 4 of which year he was commissioned a first lieutenant. On October 4 he was sent to Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia, to the Medical Officers' Training School and De- cember 15, 1917, was transferred to Camp M-Clellan, An- nisten, Alabama, and assigned to the One Hundred and Fifteenth Regiment of Infantry, Twenty ninth Division. Ile left the latter camp June 9, 1918, for oversens, Anıl- ing from Hokoken, New Jersey, June 15, and arriving at Brest, France, June 28. Doctor Powell was with the infantry throughout his service, and took part in the vn rious engagements and skirmishes in the llaute Alsnce sector from July 25 to September 23, and the sector north of Verdun, in the Argonne Forest, October 18 to October 29. His command was out of the line, stationed at Robert Espgne, France, when the armistice was signed. Doctor Powell was commissioned captain February 22. 1919, and sailed for home May 11, 1919, from St. Nazaire, France, arriving at Newport News, Virginia, May 24. 1Ie was mustered ont of the service at Camp Meade, June 12, 1919, and returned to Morgantown, resuming his practice, in which he has been highly successful.

Doctor Powell is a member of the Monogalia County Medical Society and the West Virginia State Medienl So- ciety. As a fraternalist he belongs to Morgantown Union Lodge No. 4, A. F. and A. M .; Morgantown Chapter, R. A. M .; Morgantown Commandery No. 15, K. T .: West Virginia Consistory No. 1, thirty-second degree, R. and S. M .; and Osiris Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S., of Wheeling; Morgantown Lodge No. 411, B. P. O. E .; and Athens Lodge No. 36, K P. He also holds membership in the Morgantown Kiwanis Club.

On August 3, 1916, Doctor Powell married Miss Mary Ottoff Sigwart, daughter of Otto and Margaret (White) Sigwart, of Morgantown. Mrs. Powell was born at Cum. berland, Maryland.

ROBERT WOOD DAILEY, Ja., M. D., representing a promi- nent family of Hampshire County, is a son of the venerable jurist Robert Wood Dailey, who has spent a third of a cen- tury on the Circuit bench. The life of his father and other members of the family is reviewed nt length on other pages.

Robert Wood Dailey, Jr., was born nt Romney, October 12. 1883, and was educated in the Old Potomne Academy, whose building is now part of the group of buildings for the West Virginia Deaf and Blind School. After leaving school Docter Dailey became an employe of the Davis Coal and Coke Company in their mines at Thomas, West Vir- ginia, remaining there four years. For a sim lar period he was connected with the Consolidation Coal Company at Myersdale, Pennsylvania. He then returned to West Vir. ginia and was employed on the construction of the Balti more and Ohie branch through Romney to Petersburg, con- tinning until this portion of the road was finished.

About that time he determined to follow a professional career, and entered the medical department of Loyola Uni- versity at Chicago in 1911. He graduated M. D. in 1916, and during his senior year was president of the local chap- ter of the Phi Delta fraternity. After graduating he was a physician for a year in St. John's Hospital nt Fargo, North Dakota, and then returned to Romney and for a time WAY

HISTORY OF WEST VIRGINIA

medical examiner for the Draft Board and for eight months was on duty in State Hospital No. 2 at McKendree. With this extensive preparation he returned to Romney and has since been engaged in general practice and is also physician to the State School for the Deaf and Blind.

Doctor Dailey served as a member of the Romney Coun- cil, is a democratic voter and a Master Mason.

GEORGE W. ARNOLD has been a citizen of Romney who could be depended upon for effective co-operation in every "movement for the real welfare and advancement of the town and connty. He is a banker, cashier of the Bank of Romney, has been identified with the public service, though he is not a politician, and for a number of years has been perhaps one of the strongest individual influences and workers in behalf of Sunday School and religious activity in Hampshire County.

He represents a family that has been in Hampshire County for several generations. In the early generation the Arnolds were members of the Primitive Baptist Church. His great-grandfather, William Arnold, was a minister of that faith and assisted in organizing and maintaining church work in that denomination all over Hampshire County. The grandfather of the Romney banker was George Arnold, a native of Virginia, who spent his active life on the farm. George B. Arnold, father of George W., was born in the same locality and on the same farm as his son, and when about twenty-five years of age he became a miller, operating the Ely Mill near Higginsville on Little Capon, and remained there until his death in 1890, at the early age of forty-three. He was a son of George and Sarah Powell Arnold. Sarah Powell Arnold lived past the age of four score and was the mother of Joshua, James, George Benjamin, William, Millard, Elizabeth, who mar- ried John B. Powell, and Jane, who became Mrs. W. J. Shanholtzer.

George Benjamin Arnold married Margaret B. Shelly, daughter of David and Jemimah (Bolton) Shelly. The Shelly family is of German ancestry and was established in the United States by the great-grandfather of George W. Arnold. Mrs. Margaret Shelly Arnold died in 1884, leaving seven children: Millard L .; George W .; Minnie J., who married J. C. Corder; David J .; Edward C .; Cora R., wife of George Hunter; and Agnes L., wife of Page Saunders. The father of these children married for his second wife Virginia Corder.

George W. Arnold was born in Hampshire County, nine miles from the county seat, September 13, 1872. He was a farm boy on Little Capon until the age of eighteen, ac- quiring a country school education. He began teaching, subsequently attended the Normal School at Reliance, Vir- ginia, then taught two years more in Hampshire County, and left the school rooms to take up a business career.

Mr. Arnold was a clerk in the Farmers Exchange at Rom- ney until 1903, when he was promoted to manager. Then. in 1906, he was asked to take the cashiership of the newly organized First National Bank of Romney. However, be- fore the bank opened for business arrangements were made to consolidate it with the older bank of Romney, and Mr. Arnold thus became assistant cashier of the Bank of Rom- ney, and at the beginning of 1907 was elected cashier, an office he has now filled for fifteen years.

The Bank of Romney was established in August, 1888, its promoters being community leaders including John T. Vance, and the prominent lawyers and jurists, Judge Dailey and H. B. Gilkeson. The original capital was $25,000, in- creased to $50,000 at the time of the consolidation, and in 1913 increased to $75,000. This bank has been a dividend payer from the time of its organization, ten per cent annu- ally with one exception through all these years, in addition to some special dividends. The officers of the bank are: Former Governor John J. Cornwell, president; Charles W. Haines, vice president; George W. Arnold, cashier; Blair M. Haines, assistant cashier; while the directors include the president, vice president and cashier and Thomas G. Long, D. A. Daugherty, T. F. Henderson, B. T. Racey, W. L. Tharp, R. S. Kuykendall, Jo S. Pancake, C. E. Reiley, A. L. Ewers and George S. Arnold.

Mr. Arnold's public service was on the City Council a Romney during the paving era. At the time of the Worl. war he was chairman of the bond drives in the county, an also treasurer of the county chapter of the Red Cross an enlisted his active interests in all patriotic causes. He wa one of the original incorporators and a director and treas urer of the Romney Improvement Company, which had fo its purpose the construction of a sewerage system for th town. Mr. Arnold is a charter member and a past nobl grand of Romney Lodge of the Independent Order of Od Fellows. He is a member of the Missionary Baptist Church and was affiliated with other churches until his own denom nation built its house of worship. In the religious field however, most of his time and energy have been taken u with promoting Sunday Schools in the rural communitie around Romney. He was associated with other Sunda School workers in plans for more efficient co-operation an intensive campaign for taking the Bible to the countr youth. For several years it was Mr. Arnold's practice t make Sunday trips to some school house or church in th country and conduct a class and otherwise assist in carry ing on an enthusiastic Sunday School organization, Hi general interest in all plans for community bettermer caused him to join with William N. Baird, Dr. F. J. Brook John J. Cornwell and J. Sloan Kuykendall as the first gual antors of a Chautauqua course of Romney, and for nin years he has been financially and otherwise interested in thi annual event that is now on a college basis of financial su] port.

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History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 2, Part 27

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