History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 2, Part 32

Author:
Publication date:
Publisher:
Number of Pages:

USA > West Virginia > History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 2 > Part 32

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

Mr. Pettigrew was born at Summerville, Nicholas County, West Virginia, December 23, 1887, son of S. S. and Mar- garet Adelaide (Thornton) Pettigrew. Some of his early years were spent at Springfield, Ohio, where he attended school, and he also acquired part of his education in Waslı- ington, D. C. Mr. Pettigrew attended the law school of the University of West Virginia, and began the practice of his profession at Charleston in 1914.

For four years he was a member of the Charleston City Council, and was one of the youngest members ever elected to that body. In the summer of 1918 he was chosen by the republican party as a candidate for the House of Delegates in the State Legislature and was elected in November. At the regular session in 1919 he was designated by the speaker of the House as a member of committees on taxation and finance, and forfeited and unappropriated lands.

Mr. Pettigrew is member of the prominent and successful law firm of. Barnhart, Horan & Pettigrew, with offices in the Coyle and Richardson Building at Charleston. Mr. Pettigrew married Miss Marie Harwood, of Elkins, West Virginia. Their four children are William S., Bernard Jose] h, Jr., Thomas E. and Margaret Kathleen.

ROY T. WRIGHT, general manager of the Pawama and Algonquin mines, viee president of the Bank of Matoaka and } resident of the Wright Drug Company, eame into this district in 1902 as a member of the First Engineering Corps for the Pocahontas Coal & Coke Company, and his initia- tive and ability have since advanced him to a leading place iu the affairs of this part of Mereer County.

He was born near Princeton, that county, July 24, 1882, son of E. C. and Mary S. (Ellis) Wright, the former a native of Wythe County, Virginia, and the latter of Monroe County, West Virginia. E. C. Wright came to Mercer County iu 1866 with his father, Thomas Wright, who settled on a farm near Princeton and spent the rest of his life as a farmer and eattle raiser. Thomas Wright was a veteran of the Confederate army. He was killed by accident while working in the timber at the age of eighty-four. E. C. Wright followed farming for many years, but since 1907 has been a resident of Matoaka and is in business as a funeral director. He is a Methodist, much interested in Sunday School work, is affiliated with the Masons, Knights of Pythias, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Moose and other societies, and is a democrat. His family consists of two sons and three daughters, the other son L. A. Wright being in charge of the Wright Drug Company.

Roy T. Wright acquired his early education at Princeton, finishing school at the age of eighteen, after which he spent a year on the farm. His first connection with the coal

HISTORY OF WEST VIRGINIA

ndustry was in the service of the Sagamore Coal Company on Crane Creek, following which he went with the Poca- montas Coal and Coke Company, and sinee his first work at Matoaka he has enjoyed increasing responsibilities, serving Is superintendent, manager and engineer, and has been 'onneeted with the Winonah, Hiawatha, and Smokeless eom- anies, the Springton Colliery Company, and since 1918 has een in active charge of the coal properties above mentioned and has other interests in the eeal industry as well. Besides he Bank of Matoaka and the Wright Drug Company he is manager of the Matoaka Electric & Power Company, is president of the Mercer Hardware & Furniture Company, president of the Matoaka Insurance Ageney.

Mr. Wright in 1900 married Miss Mary Harriet Me- Claugherty, who was born at Princeton, daughter of James MeClaugherty. They have three children: Bernice, a stu- lent in the Martha Washington College at Abingdon; Harry and Agnes, both in high school. The family are Methodists, and Mr. Wright is affiliated with the Elks and Knights of Pythias, is a Scottish Rite Mason and a member of the Mereer County Country Club.

WILLIAM SMITH DOWNS, a civil engineer of Morgantown, s division engineer of the West Virginia State Road Com- nission. He is a native of West Virginia, bern at Martins- burg in Berkeley County, March 15, 1883, a son of the late Joseph A. and Caroline J. (Evans) Downs. This branch of he Downs family was established in what is now West Vir- ginia by Henry Downs, who came into Berkley County in 1812 from Prince George County, Maryland, five generations removed from the present. Davenport Downs, grandfather of William S. Downs, removed from Berkeley County, West Virginia, to Iowa, in 1852. He served in the war between the states and died in Iowa shortly after its close.

The Evans family was established in what is new West Virginia by John Evans and his wife, Mary, who came to. America from Wales and settled in Berkeley County before the Revolutionary war. He built the old Evans fort which stood on what is now the Winehester Turnpike, about two miles south of the present City of Martinsburg. Tillottson Fryatt Evans, the maternal grandfather of William S. Downs, was born in Berkeley County, as was also his wife, Jane Orr. He spent his life there engaged in farm pursuits. Jeseph A. Downs was born at Wapello, Louisa County, Iowa. His mether having died when he was an infant, he was reared by her people, received a collegiate education and became a teacher by profession, practically spending his entire life in the schoolroom and dying at Martinsburg, West Virginia, in 1900. He married Caroline J. Evans, daughter of Tillottson Fryatt and Jane (Orr) Evans.

After graduating from the high school of Martinsburg, William Smith Downs entered the West Virginia University, from which he was graduated in 1906 with the degree of B. S. C. E., and from that institution in 1915 received his C. E. degree. Sinee leaving the university Mr. Downs has been continuously identified with engineering coneerns and inter- ested in the development of the state. During 1906-1907 he was chief draughtsman for the Morgantown & Kingwood Railway, and from then for several years was associated professionally with Julius K. Monroe at Kingwood. From 1911 to 1915 he was engineer in charge of foundation in- vestigation and resident engineer of the Hydro-Electric Company at Cheat Haven, West Virginia. From 1915 to 1917 he served as county road engineer for Monongalia County, and since 1917 has filled the office of division en- gineer of the West Virginia State Road Commission.

On June 22, 1910, Mr. Downs married Miss Nellie J. Al- hright, who is a daughter of L. M. and Jennie (Gibson) Albright, of Kingwood, West Virginia, and they have three children: William Richard, born December 27, 1912; James Albright, born February 18, 1914; and Jane, born Septem- her 25, 1918.

Mr. Downs has never cherished political ambitions but, nevertheless, is an earnest, well informed citizen who gladly cooperates with others in advaneing the interests of his native seetion and state. He is well known in engineering eireles here and elsewhere and is a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers.

LONNA DENNIS ARNETT. A member of an hoaored pioneer family of Monongnlia County, Lonna Dennis Arnett bas been identified with library work for more than twelve years, and since 1910 has held the position of librarian of the Uni versity of West Virginin at Morgantown. A man of wide experience in his field of endenvor, ho is likewise a close and careful student and thorough investigator, and the bene fit of his research and study is always at the dispo al of those who come into contact with Mr. Arnett in his courteo . and efficient discharge of the duties of his office.

Lonna D. Arnett was born nenr Arnettsville in Grunt District, Monongalia County, Mny 14, 1570, and belongs to a family which was established in this county by James Arnett, a native of Loudoun County, Virginia, of English parentage. Following the elose of the American Revolution James Arnett came to Monongalia County and settled on about 400 aeres of land in Grant District, near where the present Village of Arnettaville is situated, and there pa sed the rest of his life in the pursuits of agriculture. A part of his original farm is still held by his descendants. Andrew Arnett, a son of James the pioneer, was born in 1760, on l lied in 1820. He married Elizabeth Leggett. Thomas Arnett, a son of Andrew and Elizabeth, was born on the farm in Grant District August 9, 1816. He followed farm ing and also operated water-power grist mills on Indian Creek for a time. He married Zarilda Priee, a daughter of William W. Price.

William C. Arnett, son of Thomas and Zarilda, was born at Arnettsville, March 30, 1810, and died on his farm Janu ary 15, 1916. Like his father, he followed farming and to some extent operated mills on Indian Creek. In 1561 he enlisted in Company B. Sixth Regiment, West Virginin Vol unteer Infantry, a regiment with which he served until the elose of the war between the states. He was n Methodist in religion and a republican in his political sentiment. In 1×6% he married Mary Thorn, daughter of Dennis Thorn, who, with his father, settled near Laurel Point, West Virginia. some time between 1820 and 1830. Mrs. Arnett survives and continues to reside on the home farm.

Lonna Dennis Arnett, son of Willinm C. and Mary, at tended Fairmont (West Virginia) Normal School, and wh- graduated from the University of West Virginia with the degree of Bachelor of Science as a member of the class of 1$98. Following this he attended Clark University, Wor eester, Massachusetts, from which he received the degree of Doctor of Philosophy as a member of the graduating cins. of 1903, and for several years thereafter was engaged in teaching sehnol. In 1909 he took up library work in the Bureau of Education Library nt Washington, District .1 Columbia, and in the fall of 1910 beenme librarian of the University of West Virginia, a position which he has siner retained. lle is a member of the West Virginia State Library Association and the American Library Association. and holds membership also in the Sigma Chi Fraternity. In politieal allegiance he is a republican, and his religious faith is that of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

On August 18, 1903, Mr. Arnett was united in marriage with Miss Ethel Toy. daughter of Powell B. and Marietta ( Love) Reynolds, of Morgantown. Iler father, who ro. ceived the degree of Doctor of Divinity and for many years held a professorship at the University of West Virginia, is now deceased, but her mother survives and is a resident of Morgantown.

CLEMENT ROSS JONES. The State of West Virginia #we an important debt to Clement Ross Jones for his long con tinued service and his splendid work in reorganizing anl equipping the engineering department of the University of West Virginia, where for twenty years he has been [ rofe or of mechanical engineering and mechanical arts, and for th, past ten years dean of the Engineering College.

Professor Jones was born at the old Jones homestens nenr Knottsville in Taylor County, West Virginia, April 19, 1971, son of Uriah and Pernissa Jane (Ford Jones. He attended school near home, graduated from the Grafton High School in 1889, and in 1594 ree ived the degree of Bachelor of Science and Civil Engineering from the University of West Virginia. While he has practiced his profession and has

HISTORY OF WEST VIRGINIA

acquired several important business and industrial relations, Mr. Jones almost from the first has been devoted to the edu- cational side of his calling. In 1895-97 he was assistant in mechanical engineering and graduate student at the univer- sity, receiving the degree of Mechanical Engineer in June, 1897. He was instructor from 1897 to 1899, and assistant professor during 1899-1901. During the summer of 1896 he was a student in the Worcester Polytechnic Institute of Massachusetts, and in the summer of 1897 at the Stevens Institute of Technology in New Jersey, while during 1899- 1900 he was in the graduate school of Cornell University, from which he received the degree Master of Mechanical Engineering in 1900.

During the Spanish-American war the head of the depart- ment of mechanical engineering was called to active duty with the navy, and Mr. Jones remained as acting head. Soon afterward the old Mechanical Hall, with all its equip- ment, was destroyed by fire, and as the head of the depart- ment did not return, it fell to the lot of Mr. Jones to plan the new building and equipment and reorganize the depart- ment. In 1901 he was advanced to the grade of professor of mechanical engineering aud mechanical arts, aud since 1911 has been dean of the College of Engineering and pro- fessor of steam and experimental engineering. Under his direct supervision, therefore, the engineering college has been developed as one of the most important adjuncts of technical education in the state. Professor Jones is the author and joint author of a number of text and reference books and notes used in the College of Engineering, and has contributed numerous papers and reports to engineering magazines. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, American and Interna- tional Societies for Testing Materials, is former vice president of the Society for the Promotion of Engineering Education, is a member of the West Virginia Coal Mining Institute, the West Virginia Engineers Club of Morgantown, a member of the Natural Gas Association of West Virginia and America, is secretary of the engineering section of the Land Grant College Association, and his work and abilities have earned him a high reputation in technical societies both at home and abroad.

He has also done much of the practical work of his pro- fession, and from 1894 to 1898 was a member of the en- gineering firm of Jones & Jenkins. He is a director in the Federal Savings & Trust Company and of several industrial companies.

During the World war Professor Jones was fuel commis- sioner for Monongalia County, was chairman of the War Service Committee of the University and educational director of the Students Army Training Corps. When he graduated from the University in 1894 he was first lieutenant and adjutant of the West Virginia University Corps of Cadets and subsequently was appointed first lieutenant in the Na- tional Guard and was advanced to captain in 1896. He is a member of Morgantown Union Lodge No. 4, A. F. and A. M., Morgantown Commadery No. 18, K. T., and Osiris Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Wheeling. He is a member of the honorary scientific fraternity Sigma Xi, the Phi Beta Kappa, Theta Psi, Phi Sigma Kappa and is a member of the Morgantown Rotary Club and the First Methodist Episcopal Church.

July 22, 1915, he married Elizabeth Charles Gambrill, of Parkersburg, daughter of Philip Dodridge and Ione (Kineh- loe) Gambrill. They have one son, Ross Gambrill Jones, born September 29, 1917.

No family had a larger share in the great adventure which settled the frontier of West Virginia than that of Professor Jones. He is a descendant of Jacob Jones, who was born near Wilmington, Delaware, in 1732. His mother subse- quently married Samuel Lewellen, and about 1770 the Lew- ellens moved to what is now Monongalia County, West Vir- ginia, and established the old Lewellen Ferry near the Penn- sylvania line, where Samuel Lewellen obtained a grant of land in 1771. Jacob Jones accompanied his mother over the Alleghany Mountains and proceeded on to the west side of the Monongahela River, near the present town of Pentres. It was Indian country and the settlements were greatly dis-

turbed by Indian raids, beginning in 1774 and continuing through the Revolution. During the outbreak of 1777 Jacob Jones and other members of his family were besieged in the home of a neighbor, and two of his children, Mary and John Jones, were taken captive. Mary was adopted into the Wyandot tribe of Indians and spent many years with her chosen people near Sandusky, Ohio. John Jones was not satisfied to remain an Indian, and eventually escaped, going to Detroit, was educated in medicine by his adopted father and later visited his father and other members of the family in West Virginia and for many years lived near the Town of Grafton. Jacob Jones made his escape from the Indian besiegers and subsequently removed to a safer situation on Cheat River. He was a frontier soldier until the close of the Revolution, and about 1794 he obtained a grant of land near Knottsville in Taylor County, where both he and his wife died about 1829 at the respective ages of ninety-six and ninety-three. His wife was Dinah Stanton, who was born in Delaware in 1735. They were the parents of eight children. The fifth was William Jones, one of the ancestors of Professor Jones. William Jones was born May 4, 1774, in Monongalia County. Just before his birth occurred the Indian raid of that year. His mother being unable to leave home, the older children were sent on to the nearest fort, and subsequently, following a second warning, Jacob and his wife also started for the fort. The son William was born after they had proceeded about five miles, and a neighbor carried the new-born child while the father supported his wife as best he could until they reached safety. William Joncs lived near Knottsville, where he died in 1843. His wife was Sarah Anderson, and they were the parents of ten children. Of these, Samuel, the sixth child, was born Febru- ary 2, 1808, and was a farmer and shoemaker near Knotts- ville, where he died in 1897. He married Frances Limber, who was born in 1818 and died in 1888. Their second child, Uriah Jones, father of Professor Jones, was born near Knottsville, January 14, 1839. During the Civil war he was a member of the Seventeenth West Virginia Regiment, and devoted his active years to farming. Uriah Jones married Pernissa Jane Ford, who was born September 22, 1843, daughter of Lanty and Rebecca (Jones) Ford, and a great- granddaughter of William Ford, who is said to have been a soldier of the Revolution and who some years after that war moved from Fauquier County, Virginia, to the west side of Tygart's Valley River near Webster, West Virginia. His son George spent his active life as a farmer in Taylor County and was the father of Lanty Ford, who was born in Decem- ber, 1800, and after a long and active career as a farmer in the Knottsville District died in 1881. His wife, Rebecca Jones, was born in 1804 and was a granddaughter of Jacob and Dinah (Stanton) Jones, previously referred to.

The children of Uriah Jones and wife were: Harry H., leeeased, Clement Ross, George E., Fannie Rebecca and Ethel Belle.

PERCY JOHN BEAUMONT. For twenty years Percy John Beaumont, vice president and general manager of the Beaumont Company, manufacturers at Morgantown, West Virginia, has been closely identified with the industrial and general business interests of this section of the state. He has borne a leading part in the development of substantial enterprises at Morgantown and elsewhere and as both busi- ness man and citizen has won prominence and esteem.

Mr. Beaumont is a native of England and was born in the City of Birmingham, a great industrial center, Novem- ber 15, 1864. His parents were the late John and Elizabeth (Dowell) Beaumont, natives of England, who came to the United States in 1884 and both died at Wheeling, West Virginia. They had two children, a daughter, who is now the wife of Harry Northwood, an experienced designer in the glass manufacturing industry, and Percy J.

It was in 1882, when eighteen years old, that Mr. Beau- mont accompanied his sister to the United States, where she was to be married to Harry Northwood, who at that time was a designer for the Hobbs, Brockumier Glass Com- pany of Wheeling, West Virginia, but formerly had been a member of the firm of Northwood & Company, glass manu- facturers at Kingswinford, England. Mr. Beaumont had

Percy Abeaumont

HISTORY OF WEST VIRGINIA

een educated in the Episcopal schoola at Birmingham, and as ready and anxious to acquire knowledge of a trade, nd his brother-in-law encouraged him to learn the glass making and decorating business, advice he accepted and be- ame an expert glass worker under Mr. Northwood's super- ision.

In 1890 Mr. Beaumont organized the Beaumont Glass Company at Martin'a Ferry, Ohio, which was a successful nterprise from the start and soon outgrew its quarters. When it became necessary to seek another location, induce- ients were offered the company to locate at Grafton, West Virginia, and in 1902 removal was made to that city, where t is still operating as the Tyggart Valley Glass Company. dr. Beaumont disposed of his interests in the Grafton oncern in 1905, and became manager of the Union Stopper Company at Morgantown in 1906, and so continued until 917, in which year that company was reorganized as the Beaumont Company, manufacturers of illuminated glass- vare and stationers' sundries. Mr. Beaumont at that time became vice president and general manager of the company, nd so continues. Although he has numerous other im- ortant interests, he has made the manufacture of glass a eading one, and his reputation in this industry is wide- spread. He is concerned also in the development of coal ind oil and is treasurer and a director of the Chaplin Col- eries Company of Morgantown; is vice president of the Silver Hill Oil Company; is president of the Seneca Hill Oil Company, and is a director in the Farmers & Mer- chants Bank of Morgantown. He has been an encourager and often financial helper of many other laudable business enterprises here.

In 1889 Mr. Beanmont married Miss Laura Jefferson Dillon, daughter of Benjamin Dillon. Mrs. Beaumont died in 1918, leaving one daughter and two sons: Catherine Elizabeth, who is the wife of Prof. Eugene C. Auchter, Ph. D., a graduate of Cornell University, who (1922) is a member of the faculty as professor of horticulture in the Maryland State College; John Herbert, who is an A. B. graduate of the West Virginia University, is taking his Ph. D. work at the Chicago University (1922) and at the same time he is an instructor in horticulture at the Uni- versity of Minnesota; and Arthur Brittingham, who is associated with his father in business. Mr. Beaumont is a member of the First Episcopal Church at Morgantown. Political life has never attracted him nor have fraternal organizations, but he enjoys membership in the Turn Vercin Society at Morgantown.

LYNN HASTINGS. Probably there is no profession that demands so much tact, judgment, patience, specialized knowledge and natural executive ability as that of the cdu- «ator, and the individual who enters into this important field, selecting it as his calling, must be prepared to make many personal sacrifices, to endure numerous disappointments, to often spend himself for others without apparent return, and to give the best years of his life without receiving the emolu- ments that equal effort would surely bring in any other profession. It is a vocation for which there are no weights and measures. The material with which it deals is rather that life material upon which impressions are eternal and afford the man who would serve the race an opportunity than which there are none greater. One who has dedicated his life to the work of the educator and who has achieved an honored place in his vocation and in the confidence of the public is Lynn Hastings, of Morgantown, superintendent of the free schools of Monongalia County.

Mr. Hastings is a native of Monongalia County and is of the fourth generation of his branch of the family on both sides in the county. The first Hastings settler of record here was Thomas Hastings, the great-grandfather of Lynn, who settled at Cheat Neck in Union District during pioneer days. He married a McGill, and their son, Isaac, waa born in the Cheat Neck community and married Elvira Victor. At the time of the war with Mexico he was serving as a captain of Virginia militia and was sworn into the Government service, hut did not get to the front. During the war between the states he assisted in raising a company of West Virginia infantry and was commissioned first lieutenant thereof. He

was a charter member of the heat Neck Methent Prot estant Church.

ficorge B. Hastings, son of Isine and father of Lym Hastings, was born at Cheat Nek, Frir ry & Is di, nel died June 20, 1911. In early ofe he as ite }his father n the operation of the ferry over Cient River, at fest \ k. and subsequently learned the trodde of wolwerker, wh i he followed for years, in addition thereto fartosoy to cotu extent. Ile married Margaret Elizabeth Jerk , whM. born April 22, 1857, in the same neighborhood as wal ler husband, and survives him as a res dent of Mergertown.

The first of the Jenkins family of record in Monongans County was Bartholomew Jenkins, the grandfather of Mr- Hastings, who was one of three brothers to come to An r .. from Scotland, two of whom settled in other stat . Ba tholomew Jenkins settled at Cheat Neck in early days ned married Nancy Baker, daughter of George Baker, the Mo nongalia County pioneer of the Baker family. Jenkins, son of Bartholomew and Nancy Jenkins, was born at Cheat Neck and married Sophin Beatty, daughter et Robert and Nancy (Conn) Beatty. Robert Beatty wa- bert at Cheat Neck, the son of Irish-born parents who were enr ) settlers in Monongalia County. llis wife was a daughter ot James and Sophia Conn.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 2, Part 32

Author: Publication date: Publisher: Number of Pages:

Author:
Publication date:
Publisher:
Number of Pages: