History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 2, Part 36

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Mr. Strader is a member of the Masonic Order and is a «lemoerat. He belongs to the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and is interested not only in the progress of his church, but in all movements for the better social and religions uplift. The State of West Virginia voted state -: wide prohibition at the 1912 election. Mr. Strader was a member of the state executive committee, and regards the state and national prohibition movement the greatest and most permanent ever made along eivie lines.

On October 10, 1901, he married Miss Dillie Jeter, who was born in Botetourt County, near Roanoke, Virginia, July 1, 1872, daughter of Dr. Benjamin and Susan (Bonsack) Jeter. Her father, who died in 1903, was a very successful physician in Virginia. Mr. and Mrs. Strader have three children : George S., Jr., born February 4, 1903; Benjamin Jeter, born June 16, 1904; and William Robinson, born January 19, 1909.

BERNARD MCCLAUGHERTY. During the past half century no name has enjoyed greater distinction in the legal pro- fession of Mercer County than MeClaugherty. Bernard Mc- Claugherty, of the law firm MeClaugherty and Richardson at Bluefield, is a son of the late Judge Robert C. MeClaugh. erty, whose career expressed everything that was noble and useful in the legal profession. Bernard MeClaugherty he- sides an extensive law practice is president of the Com- mercial Bank of Bluefield, president of the Chamber of Commerce, and has been a leader in every commercial and eivic development in Bluefield for the past twenty years.

He is descended from an old Seoteh family which in 1688 left Scotland and settled in County Down, Ireland. From Ireland James McClaugherty came to America in 1786, locating at Sweet Springs in what is now Monroe County, West Virginia. He married Agnes MeGarre. Their son, James MeClaugherty, Jr., was a man of most substantial character, noted as a peacemaker, and was appointed execu- tor for many estates. He married Sallie Mullins.

John MeClaugherty, grandfather of Bernard MeClaugh- erty, was an extensive land owner and slave holder, and the last of his slaves, George Boxter, died only a few years ago. All the slaves were devoted to the family. John McClangh- erty married Phoebe Hale, daughter of a prominent West Virginia pioneer, Capt. Edward Hale. John McClaugherty and wife had six sons, John, Joseph H., Nelson H., Edward, D. W. and Robert C., besides several daughters. Four of these sons were in the Confederate army, Joseph, John, Edward and Nelson. Edward was appointed a lieutenant at the age of seventeen, and lost his life in battle the follow- ing year.

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Judge Robert C. McClaugherty was born near Princeton, Vest Virginia, April 7, 1850. He was the youngest among number of children, and though the family enjoyed more an ordinary material circumstances and had educational :aditions, the conditions resulting from the Civil war did ot permit him to go to college as his older brothers had one. Much of his education was acquired by diligent read ig at home by the light of a pine knot toreh. Intellectual uriosity was one of his notable characteristics, and it never cserted him, carrying him far afield in the domain of nowledge, and it is said that his proficiency in Latin and freck was excelled by few college graduates. He par- icularly enjoyed the resources of an extensive library which e accumulated, and he recognized nearly every book in : as an old friend. For two years he taught school, and at he age of twenty began the study of law with James D. ohnston at Pearisburg, Virginia. At the age of twenty one e was admitted to the bar and began practice at Princeton. Te was elected prosecuting attorney of Mercer County in $76. but so far as possible he confined his work within the trict limits of his profession and eventually he was recog- ized as one of the foremost lawyers in the southern part f the state. In 1888 he was cleeted judge of the Circuit 'ourt for the Eighth Judicial District, hut declined another omination from his party. Before going on the bench he vas a law partner of Dr. James W. Hale, and after retir- ng he devoted himself to his practice and a number of nterprises in which he was interested. Death came to him t his home in Bluefield, February 18, 1909, when he had ust attained the summit of his professional career. Outside f his profession his chief interest was his home, though le was regular in his attendance and contributions to the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and to many causes of worthy charity.

June 30, 1874, Judge MeClaugherty married Susan Woods, of Giles County, Virginia, daughter of Hudson and Sallie (Jordan) Woods. Their children were: Bernard; Edna, wife of W. M. Cornett; R. Clarence; Trixy, wife of Frank M. Peters, present postmaster of Bluefield; and Ruth, vife of George Richardson, the law partner of her brother Bernard.

Bernard McClaugherty was born at Princeton March 27, 875, and attended the grammar and high schools of Prince- on and finished his literary education in Emory and Henry College and Roanoke College of Virginia. He graduated n law from the University of West Virginia in 1898, and it once joined his father in practice. In 1899 the family ·emoved from Princeton to Bluefield, and the firm of R. C. & Bernard McClaugherty continued until the death of the senior partner in 1909. Among other important interests his firm represented the Virginian Railway Company dur- ng its unusual development and construction through the Virginias. On the death of his father Mr. MeClaugherty was joined hy F. M. Peters, Jater practiced with George A. Frick and John Kee, under the firm name of MeClaugherty, Frick & Kce, but after 1910 he practiced alone until L. G. Seott and George Richardson became associated with him. The firm is now McClaugherty & Richardson, and among other interests they represent the Appalachian Power Com- pany, the American Railway Express and the Norfolk & Western Railroad. Mr. McClaugherty has also a large gen- eral practice, and has frequently taken cases in order to secure justice where practically no remuneration was in- volved. He has been interested in several financial and business corporations, as well as to represent others as attorney. He is chairman of Group 5 of the State Bankers Association. During the World war Mr. McClaugherty was chairman of the loan campaigns in Mereer County and gave much of his time to war work. Ife is a member of the Phi Delta Theta college fraternity, the Bluefield Country Club, the Rotary Club, and has always been deeply inter- ested in athletics. He is now president of the Board of Education and has done much to emphasize the importance of athletics as a feature of education. He and all his interesting family are members of the Presbyterian Church and Sunday school.

June 30, 1903, Mr. MeClaugherty married Mary Archer Hooper, daughter of Maj. Henry R. Hooper, of Farmville,

Virginia. Fivo children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Mellnugherty, and the four now living are Bernard, Jr., Jnek, Elizabeth and Henry Hooper.

CHARLES A. GOODWIN. One of the most forceful citi zens of Morgantown, Charles A. Goodwin has always used his fine legal talents in the furtherance of what he has voneeived to be for the best interests of the city merging the two characters of citizen and lawyer into a high for sonal combination which has been generally re ogeri ns an example well worthy of emulation. In whatever movement he has participated he has stimulated er us sion and often bitter opposition, which, beside being a proof of his forceful personahty, hus, like the elements of an cleetrie storni, resulted in the clarification of the atmosphere and redounded to the general good.

Mr. Goodwin was born at Morgantown, November 19, 1869, and is in the third generation of his family m Monongalia County. Ilis grandfather, Samuel Goodwin, the elder, who settled in this county in the latter part of the nineteenth century, married Eleanor ( MeBre) Wor man. Samuel Goodwin, the younger, son of the pioneer Samuel, was born in Monongalia County and became a business man of Morgantown, where for many years he was at the head of a large foundry business and later a traveling salesman for a lending oil company. During the war between the North and the South he enlisted and served in Company A, First Regiment, West Virginia Volunteer Cavalry. He was born in 1\40 and died No vember 25, 1908. Mr. Goodwin married Jane C. Reny, daughter of George N. and Elizabeth Reny.

Charles A. Goodwin, son of Samuel and Jane C. Reay) Goodwin, was primarily educated in the public schools of Morgantown, and subsequently attended the University of West Virginia, which he first entered in IS6. spent one year, and then accompanied his parents to I'niontown, Pennsylvania. Returning to the university in 1-93, he was graduated from its law department with the degree of Bachelor of Laws in 1895. In the same year he was admitted to the bar of West Virginia and immediately entered upon the practice of his profession at Morgan town. In 1900 he was elected proseenting attorney for Monongalia County, and his first term of service presented such an excellent reeord that he was re-elected to succeed himself, and remained in that office for two full terms. Jater acting also as city solieitor for several yenre.

Mr. Goodwin has been active in eivie affairs for sev. eral years, and has taken a prominent part in the differ ent movements inaugurated for the improvement and wel fare of the city. He has been especially active in those movements promulgated to guard the city rights from eneroachment by the corporations behind the city utilities, such as the street railways fares, the cost of gas to ron sumers and the fight for a new city charter io 1921 in which he was particularly conspicuous. Mr. Goodwin hns proven himself absolutely at home in the court room and familiar with its every detail. He has nt his finger tips every intricacy of practice and is never at a loss no to which course to pursue. While open and nhove board himself. he knows how to meet trickery, and his faculty of anticipating and forestalling a move of his opponents has been freely commented upon and greatly appreciated by his adherents.

Aside from his profession Mr. Goodwin has few inter ests of a business nature save his connection with coal mining. In this industry he has important holdings, and is a director in the Brady Coal Company Corporation Hle is an active member of the Monongalia County Bar Association and the West Virginia Bar Association, and his religious connection is with the Methodist Epis opal Church. He holds membership in the Sons of the Amerienn Revolution and in Morgantown Lodge of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. In political allegiance he is an ardent republican and accounted one of the strong men of his party at Morgantown.

On April 17, 1902, Mr. Goodwin was united in mer. riage at Morgantown with Miss Frances Sophia Ross, who was born in Switzerland. the daughter of Swiss par-

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ents who died in the United States, To Mr. and Mrs. Goodwin there has come one son, George, who was born September 3, 1903.

THOMAS EDWARD PEERY, M. D., has been in practice as a physician and surgeon at Bluefield nearly a quarter of a century. His residence coincides with the important period in the growth and development of the city as a commercial center. Doctor Peery for a number of years has been a noted specialist, and his work has given him a position in the front rank in this state of men who confine their prac- tice entirely to the eye, ear, nose and throat.

Doctor Peery was born in Southwestern Virginia, in Tazewell County, November 1, 1873. Seven days later his mother died, and he was taken to Burkes Garden, Virginia, and reared by his uncle Stephen Peery's widow, Mrs. Eliza- beth Repass Pecry. He acquired his early education in the Academy at Graham, Virginia, and at Roanoke College, and later, in April, 1892, was graduated from the Commercial College of Kentucky University. In the fall of 1892 he entered the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Balti- more, where he graduated in the spring of 1895. Doctor Peery immediately registered in West Virginia on his diploma, and after passing the Virginia State Board at Richmond began general practice at Pearisburg, Virginia. A few months later, in December, 1895, he left Pearisburg and traveled through Florida and the western states. While in the West he was licensed to practice medicine hy the state boards of Utah and California. Returning to his former home at Burkes Garden, Doctor Peery decided to take special work in eye, ear, nose and throat diseases. To that end he entered the New York Polyclinic, the North- western Throat and Nose Dispensary and the Manhattan Eye and Ear Hospital in New York City, where he remained two years. In November, 1897, he located at Bluefield, and since then has handled a great number of difficult cases in his special field and has a reputation extending out for hundreds of miles around Bluefield.

Doctor Peery is a member of the Mercer County Medical Society, West Virginia State Medical Society, Virginia State Medical Society, Southern Medical Association, South- ern States Association of Railway Surgeons, American Medical Association, and the American Ophthalmological Society. He is oculist and otolaryngologist for the Norfolk & Western Railway Company, for the West Virginia State Compensation Commission at Bluefield, the Virginia State Compensation Commission, the Clinchfield Coal Corporation, Virginia Iron, Coal and Coke Company, and is expert examiner for the United States Pension Bureau and United States War Risk Insurance. During the war he was a member of the Medical Advisory Board as expert examiner in eye, ear, nose and throat conditions. Also in the line of his profession Doctor Peery teaches pupil nurses in eye, ear, nose and throat diseases at the Bluefield Sanitarium and St. Luke's Hospital, also at Bluefield.

Doctor Peery is a director in the Flat Top National Bank of Bluefield, is a member of the Bluefield Chamber of Com- merce, and is interested in several other corporations in that city. He is a member of the Royal Arch and Knight Templar Masons, the Mystic Shrine, the Elks, and is a Rotarian. He is a democrat in politics.

The Peery family is an old and honored one in Virginia, Doctor Peery representing the fifth generation. The first settlers were Scotch-Irish, who came from County Donegal and settled near Staunton in Augusta County, Virginia. Among these first settlers were Thomas, noted below; John, who died in Augusta County; George, who died at Augusta in 1802, last survivor of the first settlers, one of his sons removing to North Carolina and two to the southern part of Tennessee, their descendants being now found in Tennes- see, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Texas; James, who removed to Botetourt County, Virginia, and probably died there, his children moving to Tazewell County and also to Tennessee and Kentucky; and William, probably the William Peery who was a member of the first Continental Congress from Delaware.

Thomas Peery, representing the family line including Doctor Peery, was a soldier in the Indian wars of 1742 as

a member of Capt. John Wilson's Militia of August County. Among his children were four sons. John, Georg William and Thomas. John and George settled in Taz well County, William was in the Clarke Expedition to th Northwest Territory, assisting in the capture of Vincenne and Kaskasia, and fought for the Colonies on the easter slope of the Alleghenies, being present at Alamance, Nort Carolina, against Tarleton at King's Mountain under actin Capt. Reese Bowen, and died in Tazewell County in 1830.

Thomas, of the second generation, married Miss Denni and his children were: Jonathan, who married Miss Rol erts; James, who married Miss Gillespie; Joseph, who ma ried Miss Gose; Harvey, who married Miss Williams; Wi liam, whose first wife was Miss Wynn and second, Mis Kincer; Parmelia, who married a Wilson; Nancy, who ma! ried a Helms; Polly, who married a Peery; Rebecca, wh married a Whitten; and Thomas, noted below.

Thomas Peery, of the third generation, was born Noven ber 10, 1786, and died February 17, 1872. He married An Gose, born in 1798 and died April 23, 1857. Their children constituting the fourth generation, were: Jesse, who may ried Angeline Mahood; Stephen, who married Elizabet Repass; Margaret, who married Rev. J. J. Greever; Arch bald, whose record follows; James, who married Miss Mar Spotts; Sophia, who married Elias Foglesong; Sallie, wh married Jackson Muncey; Elizabeth, who married Isaa Hudson; and Thomas, who married Sarah Repass.

Archibald Peery, who was born August 9, 1828, was kille August 1, 1878, at the age of fifty. During the Civil wa he held the rank of lieutenant in the Confederate army, an served throughout that struggle. Afterward he gaine distinction as a lawyer, residing at Tazewell, and was th first prosecuting attorney for MeDowell County, West Vir ginia, and for several years prosecuting attorney fo Buchanan County, Virginia. He was a democrat and member of the Lutheran Church. May 23, 1872, he married Mary Elizabeth Daily, who was born January 27, 1855, and died in November, 1873, a few days after the birth of he only son, Thomas Edward.

Dr. Thomas Edward Peery on December 18, 1900, mar ried Miss Emma Mildred Fulcher, of Staunton, Virginia Their three children, constituting the sixth generation, ar Mildred, born April 2, 1902, Elizabeth, born August 4, 1903 and Virginia, born August 23, 1905.

GEORGE P. CROCKETT was admitted to the bar soon afte reaching his majority. He entered the profession with : singleness of aim, his primary ambition being to excel il the strict limits of the law, and he has never departed to any extent from that aim and has achieved a reputation a a lawyer of substantial attainments and is member of on of the prominent law firms of Mercer County, at Bluefield

Mr. Crockett was born at Graham, Virginia, November 6 1879, son of Robert G. and Margaret Eliza (Witten) Crockett. His parents were both born in Tazewell County Virginia. The Crockett family is an old and well known one in Western Virginia and Tennessee, and it is said that three brothers came from either England or Scotland and settled in Western Virginia and Eastern Tennessee. Severa of their descendants have since become well known ir Southern West Virginia. Robert G. Crockett was a farmer and cattleman, a livestock dealer, and served two years as a Confederate soldier in General Fitzhugh Lee's cavalry. He was once wounded slightly in the leg, but fully recovered and after the war he was elected and served several years as sheriff of his county.

George P. Crockett acquired his early education in the Lutheran preparatory school known as Wartburg Seminary. which stood on the site now occupied by the Graham High School. In 1896 he entered the University of West Virginia and pursued his studies there in the academic and law departments until graduating in 1901. He was admitted to the bar the same year, and at once entered practice at Blue- field with his brother, Z. W. Crockett. The firm of Crockett & Crockett continued until 1907, in which year Judge John Sanders, on resigning from the Supreme Court, joined them, and since then Sanders & Crockett has been a law firm of great prestige and with a very important clientage in the

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southern part of the atate. Mr. Crockett has never sought iny of the advantages or emoluments of politica. He loves the law as a profession, is a deep and thorough student, and in his practice he has appeared before all the courta. He is 1 member of the County, State and American Bar associa- :jons.

Mr. Crockett, who is unmarried, is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, belongs to the Kiwanis Club and to several civie organizations at Bluefield.

WILLIAM J. THOMAS, M. D., is one of the able physicians ind surgeons prominently identified with mine practice in he coal distriets of Logan County, where he has charge of such professional work for the Standard Island Creek Coal 'ompany at Toplin, as does he also for the Guyan Valley Coal Company and the Low Ash Coal Company.

Doctor Thomas was born on his father's farm ten miles listant from Winfield, Putnam County, this state, October 22, 1872, and is a son of John C. and Roxie (Atkinson) Thomas, the latter being a first cousin of former Governor Atkinson and being now a resident of the City of Charles- on, at the age of seventy five years (1922). John C. Thomas, who died in 1906, at the age of fifty-nine years, was born in Kanawha County, and his wife was born in Ohio, at a point on the Ohio River just opposite Point Pleasant, West Virginia. John C. Thomas studied law inder the protectorship of Judge Hoge at Winfield, and became one of the leading members of the bar of Putnam County, he having achieved special success as a criminal awyer. In earlier years he had been a successful teacher and had also served as county superintendent of schools in Putnam County. Ile was an active worker in the ranks of he republican party and was a consistent member of the Presbyterian Church, as is also his widow. The Thomas family was founded in Kanawha County in the pioneer days, ind John C. Thomas, great-grandfather of Doctor Thomas, was there serving as a member of the County Court at the .ime Putnam County was segregated and created an inde- endent county. Doctor Thomas is the younger of the two sons in a family of five children, and his brother, Luther B., s engaged in the mercantile business at Cannelton, Kana- ha County.

The early edneation of Doetor Thomas was acquired in the schools of his native county, and as a youth he there made an excellent record as a teacher in the rural schools. After attending the University of West Virginia three years ie entered the College of Physicians and Surgeons in the City of Baltimore, Maryland, in which he was graduated n 1892, his reception of the degree of Doctor of Medicine having occurred before he had attained to his legal mai- jority. Ile established himself in practice at Plymouth, Putnam County, where he remained until 1907, and there- ifter he was engaged in practice in the City of Charleston intil 1913, when he hecame official physician and surgeon For the United States Coal & Oil Company at Holden, Logan County. Three years later he removed to Aecoville, Logan County, and from that place he came to Toplin, where he as sinee continued his successful service as mine physician for the companies mentioned in the opening paragraph of his review. He has taken four post-graduate courses in he medieal department of Johns Hopkins University at Baltimore, and he is a member of the Logan County and the West Virginia State Medical societies and the American Medical Association. At the time of the World war Doeter Thomas was commissioned a captain in the Medical Corps of the United States army, but was soon afterwards a victim of the influenza, after hia recovery from which he found Full demand upon his attention in treating others similarly ufflieted, with the result that he was not otherwise called into active service. His political allegiance is given to the re- onblican party, he is affiliated with the Blue Lodge, Chapter ind Commandery bodies of York Rite Masonry, as well as he Mystie Shrine, and he and his wife hold membership in he Presbyterian Church.

In 1899 Doeter Thomas married Miss Burton Carpenter, laughter of Thomas P. Carpenter, M. D., of Poca, Putnam County. Doctor and Mrs. Thomas have no children.

FRANK S. EASLEY is president and principal owner of the Bluefield Coal and Coke Company. This is one of the most substantial business corporations in West Virginia. For a number of years it has handled a Inrge part of the valuable conl production in the famous Pocahontas fields. Tho company owna and operates coal properties of their own, but the chief business is wholesaling coal as anles agents for many groups of mines in the l'ocahontas fields. The company has a capital aml surplus of $2 0,000, and itų annual business is valued at over $3,000 000. The excutive personnel of the company is: Frank 8. Easley, president ; J. S. llewitt, vice president; J. E. Anderson, secretary, and W. D. Cooper, treasurer.

Frank S. Easley has been identified with the coal india try for many years. He was born at Pearistsurg, Virginia. Angust 3, 1875, son of John White and Ebzabeth Boyd (Paek) Easley. Ilis parents were natives of Virginia, and his father was a very able physician who practiced n num ber of years at Prarisburg and later moved to Bluefield. where he continued to carry the burdeny of his profession until his death in 1909. He was a leader in civie affairs. at one time was clerk of his county in Virginia, was a. Mason and was a lover of fine horses.

Frank S. Easley attended the common and high schooly at Pearisburg, Virginia, took a normal course at Concord. Virginia, and then studied law, not with a view to qualify- ing for the profession but as a means of rounding out his general business education. lte studied inw in the law school of the University of the City of New York.

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History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 2, Part 36

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