History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 2, Part 37

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Mr. Easley beeamo identified with the Pocahontas Fuel Company at Bluefield in 1906, and was with this corporation about eight years. Then, in 1911, he purchased n con- trolling interest in the Bluefield Coal and Coke Company. He is a director of the First National Bank of Bluefield and president of the Wright Milting Company of Bluefield.

In 1914, at Lynchburg, Virginia, Mr. Easley married Miss Elizabeth Tyler, daughter of Walker W. and Ella ( Rucker Tyler, natives of Virginia. Mr. Easley is a Baptist, is a past master of his Masonie Lodge, a member of the Royal Arch Chapter, is past eminent commander of the Knights Templar, a Shriner. and has also taken some of the Scottish Rite degrees. Ilis favorite diversion is golf, and he is a familiar figure on the links of the Bluefield Country Club. Ile was one of the organizers of this club and a member of its board of governors. He also belongs to the Chamber of Commerce and Rotary Club. and as a business man of un doubted suecess, a forceful as well as a popular personality, he is one of the several men with home and interests at Bluefield who rank high among the men of affairs of What Virginia.

LONNIE G. BRAY has proved a forcefut figure in con. neetion with the coal-mining industry and also its com mereial phases and is one of the prominent representatives of this important field of enterprise in West Virginia, with residence and business headquarters in the City of Wil liamson, Minge County.

A acion of a family, of Scotch linvage, that was ear y established in North Carolina, Mr. Bray was born in that state, on the 31st of March, 1853. a son of Henry Winston Bray and Frances Emily ( Marley) Bray, both likewise natives of North Carolina, where the father continued h - association with farm enterprise until 1595, when he enme ta West Virginia and became connected with the Pocahontas Coal Company, at Pocahontas, Virginin, from which plaer he removed with his family to Bramwell in the following year. Lonnie G. Bray left the Bramwell High School when twenty years of age and entered the employ of the Booth- Bowen Coal & Coke Company, as engineer on a mine loro motive. Later he became assistant mine foreman, and h continued in the employ of this company about six years He next gave about four years of elerical service in the employ of the Caswell Creek Coal & Coke Company lle next became noteman and chainman for R. H. Stowe, mining engineer, and he was with the Pocahontas Consolidated Coal Company, at Switchbaek about three months. Ile continu 1 in the same service at Williamson one year, and during the

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ensuing three years he was a mining contractor with the Williamson Coal & Coke Company. He then met with an accident that necessitated the amputation of his right leg, and after recuperating from his injury he became inspector for the State Mine Department for the Fourteenth District. After serving in this capacity seven months he purchased an interest in the Standard Thacker Coal Company, of which he became general manager, as did he also of the Burning Creek Coal Company. In 1920 Mr. Bray effected the incer- poration of the Williamsen Pond Creek Coal Sales Company, of which he is president and general manager and which he has developed into an important agency in handling mine products from this district. Mr. Bray was elected a mem- ber of the County Court of Mingo County, West Virginia, in 1920, and served as a commissioner one year, when he was appointed president of the court, January 1, 1922, for a term of six years. Mr. Bray is affiliated with York and Scottish Rite bodies of the Masonic fraternity and the Mystic Shrine, as is he also with the Elks, the Knights of Pythias and the United Commercial Travelers. He and his wife hold membership in the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.

At Bristol, Tennessee, in 1906, Mr. Bray married Miss Nora Blankenship, daughter of James and Easley (Shan- non) Blankenship, of Bramwell, West Virginia, both having been born in Virginia. Mr. and Mrs. Bray have five chil- dren: Lyda Virginia, Isabelle Frances, James Winston, Gladys and Madge.

ELBERT ROBERT MULLINS has found in his native county ample scope for effective achievement in connection with business affairs of important order, as is evident when it is stated that he is cashier of the Merchants & Miners Bank at Man, an important industrial village in Logan County. He was born on a farm on Coal River, near Sovereign, this county, March 4, 1888, and is a son of James D. and Mary Helen (Perry) Mullins, both likewise natives of this county. James D. Mullins died in April, 1898, at the age of fifty- eight years. His father, Hiram Mullins, was a pioneer farmer in Logan County, was influential in public affairs in his community and served many years as justice of the peace, besides which he was a gallant soldier of the Union in the Civil war. He was ninety years of age at the time of his death, and his widow attained to the age of ninety-six years. James D. Mullins was the owner of an excellent farm on Coal River, couducted a general store at Sovereign and there held the office of postmaster for a long term of years, his allegiance having been given to the republican party. His wife was born on a farm on which the Village of Stowe, Logan County, is now situated, and she now re- sides in the home of her son Elbert R., of this sketch, who is one of a family of five sons and five daughters and who served in the World war as a member of the American Expeditionary Forces in France, as did also his brother, Edgar E., who was a member of a headquarters artillery brigade and who saw active service on the battle front. James Perry, maternal grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was likewise a Union soldier in the Civil war, and the World war gave evidence that the ancestral military prestige was not lowered by representatives of the third generation of the Mullins and Perry families.

After receiving the advantages of the public schools Elbert R. Mullins was for one year a student in Marshall College. Thereafter he was employed by the Logan Coal Company and the Cleveland Cliffs Coal Company at Ethel, Logan County, where he remained three years, in the ca- pacity of bookkeeper. He next became bookkeeper in the First National Bank of Logan, and while it was his desire to volunteer for service when the nation became involved in the World war, circumstances did not warrant this action, but in September, 1917, he realized his ambition, in being called into service on the first draft. He was sent to Camp Lee, Virginia, and thence to Bordeaux, France, where as a member of a battalion of heavy artillery he was for forty- nine days under fire at the Argonne Forest front. He escaped wounds and continued in active service in France one year and one day. After the close of active conflict, with the signing of the armistice, he returned to his native

land, and at Camp Lee, Virginia, he received his honorable discharge, with the rank of corporal. Almost immediately after his return home Mr. Mullins became assistant cashier of the First National Bank of Logan, and upon the organ- ization of the Merchants & Miners Bank at Man he was chosen its cashier, an office in which he is achieving splendid work in the upbuilding of the institution. He is a repub- lican and is affiliated with the American Legion.

COSBY C. COOKE, engaged in coal mining and connected with several coal companies operating in West Virginia, was born in Fauquier County, Virginia, September 18, 1883, and is a son of John G. and Carrie C. (Crittenden) Cooke, both likewise natives of the historic Old Dominion State. The father was there a successful farmer, and his death occurred in 1921, when he was sixty-seven years of age. His widow is now a resident of Clifton Forge, Virginia. Of the seven children the subject of this review was the second in order of birth. William F., another of the sons graduated from Washington & Lee University in 1918, and is now (1922) chief engineer for the Red Jacket Coal Com- pany in Mingo County, West Virginia.

Cosby C. Cooke supplemented the discipline of the public schools by attending the Virginia Polytechnic Institute at Blacksburg, which he left in 1909. He thereafter was for one year a student in the historic eld University of Vir- ginia. After leaving the Polytechnic Institute he made his first appearance in the West Virginia coal fields and became associated with the American Coal Company at McComas, Mercer County. He was next connected with the land department of the Pocahontas Coal & Coke Com- pany at Bramwell, and later was transferred to the com- pany's offices at Bluefield. Thercafter he served as assist- ant engineer in construction work for the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad, and it was after this service that he passed a year as a student in the University of Virginia. He then became chief engineer for the Lowmoor Iron Company at Lowmoor, Virginia, and in 1915 he came to Kay Moor, Fayette County, West Virginia, where for three years he was an executive in the coal department of the same com- pany. For the ensuing three years he was superintendent of the Rita Mine of the Guyan Mining Company, and since that time he has been the efficient and popular superintend- ent of the Man Mining Company, his career having been one marked by consecutive advancement through loyal and effective service. He is a member of the American Insti- tute of Mining Engineers and Metallurgists, is affiliated with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, is a member of the Presbyterian Church, and his wife holds membership in the Baptist Church.

The year 1917 recorded the marriage of Mr. Cooke and Miss Ella Carpenter Rupert. daughter of Dr. L. B. Rupert, of Kanawha County, West Virginia.

FLOYD D. STOLLINGS, who has been a prominent and in- fluential figure in connection with the timher business in West Virginia and also in the handling of coal lands, has the distinction of maintaining his home in a town that was named in his honor, the attractive village of Stellings, Lo- gan County. He was born near Chapmanville, this county, in January, 1853, and is a son of Nelson and Lurania (Workman) Stollings, the former of whom likewise was born near Chapmanville, and the latter of whom was born in Boone County, where her death occurred in 1890 and where her husband died in 1900. at the venerable age of eighty-four years. Josiah Stollings, grandfather of the subject of this review. owned large tracts of land near Chapmanville, and was one of the representative pioneers of Logan County. The Stollingses came from North Caro- lina and were numbered among the first settlers in the Guyan Valley in what is now West Virginia. Abraham Workman, maternal grandfather of Mr. Stollings, likewise came to this section in an early day, his former home hav- ing been in North Carolina, near the Virginia line.

Nelson Stollings finally established his home on a farm in Boone County, about midway between Chapmanville and Madison, and he met with heavy property and finan- cial losses at the time of the Civil war. He became a mail

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contraeter, and transported mail from Logan to Charleston and also between Logan and Wayne, besidea which he es- tablished a postoffice at Tracefork, a village now known as Manila, in Boone County. After the close of the war Nel- son Stollings was prosperous in his activities as a farmer, trader and mail eentractor. lle was born in the year 1816 and his wife in 1821, both having been earnest members of the Missionary Baptist Church and his political allegiance having been given to the democratic party. Of their seven children Floyd D., of this sketch, is the only one now liv ing. The oldest son, Thomas B., though under age at the time, enlisted for service as a Confederate soldier in the Civil war.

Floyd D. Stollings gained his carly education in the schools of Logan and Boone counties, and his initial work of independent order was the service which he gave as postmaster at Traeefork. From 1874 to 1876, inclusive, he was in the panhandle district of Texas, and upon his re- turn to West Virginia he engaged in the mercantile busi- ness in Boone County. He next turned his attention to the timber industry and instituted operations on Twelve Pole Creek and Guyandot River. He first bought poplar and walnut timber, which he would raft down to the Ohio River, down which stream the fleets of logs were towed by boats to market points. In his operations, which became of large scope, he maintained his headquarters at Catletts- burg, Kentucky, which was the headquarters for all of the old timber men operating on the Twelve Pole and the Guyandot rivers. Mr. Stollings has bought and sold many thousands of acres of timber and coal lands, has eut the timber from mueh land that he later sold to coal operators, and among his purchases was 500 aeres where the village of Stollings is now situated, this town having been founded in 1900, which was named in his honor and to the develop- ment of which he has contributed in general measure, he having here established his home after many years' resi denee in Boone County. He is a democrat in political al- legiance and his wife is a member of the Christian Church. The year 1873 recorded the marriage of Mr. Stollings and Miss Luella A. Stone, daughter of the late William N. Stone, of Boone County. Of this union were born five sons and five daughters, two of the sons being deceased.

JOHN F. FERAELL. An interesting example of the power of hard work and continuous energy in molding the des- tiny of the individual and also of other persons and af- fairs around him is the career of John F. Ferrell, of Logan. The sphere of his activities has been the timber and lum- her industry. There was probably no part of the heavy labor involved in logging among these West Virginia hills which escaped his early experience. It is literally true that he has come up from the ranks to the present responsibilities as general manager and one of the owners of the Logan Planing Mill, one of the largest industries of its kind in this part of the state.

Mr. Ferrell was born at his father's farm at Chapman- ville, April 29, 1878, son of B. C. and Sarah (Dingess) Ferrell. His mother, who is still living, at the age of sixty- six, was born on Crawley Creek, six miles from Chapman- ville, daughter of John Dingess, a native of the same local- ity who died while a soldier in the Confederate Army. At one time the Dingess family owned all the land from the present location of Logan to the mouth of Big Creek. B. C. Ferrell, who died in January, 1909, at the age of fifty-five, was born at Chapmanville, son of Samuel Fer- rell, who came from Russell County, Virginia, in 1841, and acquired a large amount of valuable land in these valleys. The original homestead of the Ferrells is still owned in the family. Samuel Ferrell was opposed to slavery, was a eon- aistent member of the Christian Church, and the camp meeting grounds of that denomination were on his land. He was a strong republican. B. C. Ferrell was a farmer. stock raiser and dealer, and before the days of railroads he drove his stock over the mountains to market in Roane County. He was a member of the Christian Church and was a democrat. Samuel Ferrell had a family of five aona and one daughter. Besides B. C., anether son, Squire, died at the age of sixty years. The three living aons are O. F.,

L. B. and R. L., and the daughter, Naney Jane, is the wife of John Godby, all prosperous farmers. B. C. Ferrell and wife had a large family of sons and daughters: John F., tho oldest; Roxie, wife of O. C. Winter, of Huntington, a traveling salesman; W. V., at the old homo placo; Sarah Ann, who died at the age of fifteen; Wallace E., travelng representative for the Logan Planing Mill and a resident of Huntington; G. S., in the feed business at C'hapmaoville; Ruth, wife of E. L. Carter, a traveling sule man with hem at lluntingtoa; Mary, wife of A. S. Christian, living at the old Dingess place at the mouth uf Crawley Creek ; B /h. wife of Kyler Porter, an operator for the Che nj ak an] Ohio Railroad at Chapmanvice; Peter M., hving with Lu mother at Chapmanville; and Julia, whe diel at the nge f three.

John F. Ferrell grew up at Chapmanville, acquired his early schooling there, but his better eduention hus turn achieved since he married and is due to his arıdi atin to business and also to studies taken up and carried on in the intervals of other work. He was only fifteen when he wert to work in the timber, felling trees, sawing the logs, and his own labor has helped remove the timber from extensive portions from Elk Creek and Big Ugly Creek. Mr Ferrell has owned probably twenty saw mills, and during the period of the great war he operated five mulls of his own. The company owning and operating the Logan Planing Min was organized January 11, 1916, nud nequired the property formerly known as the Lawson Planing Mill. Mr. Ferrel from the first has been active manager of the plant. They are manufacturers of building material, consisting of yel low pine from the long leafed district of the South, fir and fruit from the Northwest, and also native timln r. While much of the output ia consumed locally. this is one of the firms that do a heavy export business, & ling output as far away as Australia.

Mr. Ferrell while a member and chairman of the Scho 1 Board in Chapmanville district was certainly responsible in no small degree for the tine schools established and maintained there. On May 9, 199, at the age of twenty. one, he married Miss Delia Garrett, daughter of Rev. W. G. Garrett, who was a widely known minister of the Christian Church in this section. Mr. and Mrs. Ferrell are the par- ents of eight children. The daughter Garrett is the wif . of Walter T. Mitchell, an overseas veterao, and they are now at Prescott, Arizona, where Mr. Mitchell is recovering from illness contracted during the war. The other children are all in the home circle and their names are Jane, Ruth, Eloise, Sarah, James, Johu and Iola. An adopted son, Roy, was killed on the battle front in France, November 9. 1918, just two days before the signing of the nrmistice.

Mr. and Mrs. Ferrell are members of the Christian Church, and he is a past graad of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows at Logan, belongs to the Elks and is a democrat. He resides at $25 Ninth Street, West Hunting ton, West Virginia.

Mr. Ferrell at the time of his marriage had a cash caji- tal of only $7.55. Out of this he paid five dollars to the minister for performing the ceremony. They bought their housekeeping outfit on credit, and restricted themselves to the essentiala, buying only half a set each of knives, forks, plates and eups and saucers. Their bedstead cost $2.50, and it was equipped with a shuck mattress, while his mother gave them a feather bed. Mr. and Mrs. Ferrell have been real partners in every phase of their married life. For two years Mr. Ferrell did the bravy manual toil of the timber work, also worked inside. At that time he owned four mules, and he would get into the timber with his teams before daylight and continued until long after dark. Mrs. Ferrell fed the team when he returned home and also the following morning before he started out. It was as a result of such co-operation that they got their start.

JOSEPH W. STAYMAN. The president of the Potomac State School at Keyser is Joseph W. Stayman, who for more than a quarter of a century has been actively naso- ciated with educational interests in West Virginia. The first year he was in the state he taught a country s ·bool, but for the greater part of twenty years his work has been at

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Keyser, either in the city schools or what is now the State College.

Mr. Stayman was born at Carlisle, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania. His parents were Joseph B. and Mary A. (Shelley) Stayman, the latter a daughter of Daniel Shelley. Joseph B. Stayman was born in Cumberland County on a farm, secured a college education in Dickinson College, and began his business career as a forwarder, with headquarters at Mechanicsburg. He was in that business until late in life, then retiring, and he lived for some years at Carlisle, where he died in 1898. During the Civil war he was a Union soldier as a private in a company commanded by his father. This company saw its chief duty within the state, but had some more serious service during the Confederate invasion which terminated in the battle ef Gettysburg. The widow of Joseph B. Stayman died in July, 1914. They reared four children: Daniel, of New York City; William, of Pottsville, Pennsylvania; Mrs. Garrett Stevens, of Cleve- land, Ohio; and Joseph Webster.

Joseph W. Stayman lived until he was sixteen with his maternal grandparents near Harrisburg. He was among country people of Pennsylvania Dutch stock and had some excellent intellectual influences. His grandfather, Daniel Shelley, was a well known educator and was the first county superintendent of Cumberland County schools and estab- lished the Normal School at Newville, an institution since moved to Shippensburg. After teaching for a number of years Daniel Shelley entered the service of the Cumberland Valley Railroad Company, and was in that work until he finally retired. Joseph W. Stayman attended school at Shiremanstown, Pennsylvania, where his grandparents lived, graduated in 1890 from the Dickinson Preparatory School at Carlisle, and in the same fall entered upon his regular collegiate work in Dickinson College, where he received his Bachelor's degree in 1894. Dickinson College gave him the Master of Arts degree in 1897, and during his individual career as an educator he has taken post-graduate work in the University of Chicago, in Columbia University of New York, and has recently completed the work leading up to the Doctor's degree in Pitt University at Pittsburgh.

In 1896, soon after leaving college, a matter of business brought him to West Virginia, and while here he accepted a proposition to teach a country school at the mouth of Greenland Gap in Grant County. He taught there one term, the following year he was principal of the three-room school at Moorefield, and in 1899 came to Keyser to teach the ninth grade in the local schools. After a year he was called to Terra Alta as principal of the town schools, where he remained three years. Since then his work has been in Keyser, where for nine years he was superintendent of the city schools, and resigned that office to become principal of what was then known as the Keyser Preparatory Branch of the West Virginia University. By act of the Legislature in 1921 the name of this institution was changed to the Potomac State School, with Mr. Stayman as its first presi- dent.

He has completed ten years of work as head of this in- stitution. From a secondary school, designed as a feeder to the State University, it is now rapidly building up to the status of a junior college. The school suffered a great handicap in 1917 by the loss of its building by fire. Since then a second year of college work has been added to the curriculum, and graduates from the school are entitled to enter the junior class of any standard college or university in the United States. The teaching force has been improved both in number and in qualifications, and in the way of equipment Mr. Stayman has witnessed the building of two dormitories, the acquisition of a farm where vocational edu- cation is taught and the institution of vocational depart- ments, home economics and commerce.

During his many years of residence at Keyser Mr. Stay- man has acquired some substantial business interests, and his enthusiasm is especially directed in the line of fruit growing. He first acquired an interest in the Alkire orchard, and in association with four others purchased that property, now known as the Potomac State Orchard, one of the large orchards in this section of the state. There are 15,000 apple trees of bearing age in condition, and under

the new management the property has been greatly im- proved. Mr. Stayman is also a director of and had a part in the organization of the Potomac Farm and Orchard Asso- ciation, doing a general fruit packing and sales business at Keyser. Plans are now being formulated for the construc- tion of a by-product plant for using the lower grade fruit and converting it into food products.

Mr. Stayman took the initiative and was made chairman of the organizing committee of the Keyser Rotary Club in 1921. In Masonry he served three years as master of Davis Lodge No. 51, A. F. and A. M., was for twelve years secre- tary of Keyser Chapter, R. A. M., has been captain general of Damascus Commandery, Knights Templar, and is a mem- ber of Osiris Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Wheeling. He is a republican, and is an active member of the Method- ist Episcopal Church, serving fifteen years on its board of stewards.

At Keyser, November 19, 1914, he married Miss Margaret Liller, daughter of William A, and Martha (Kalbaugh) Liller. Her father was a contractor and builder who spent most of his life in the eastern part of the state. Mrs. Stayman was born at Keyser, is a graduate of the local public schools and the Keyser Preparatory School's music department and completed her musical education in National Park Seminary at Washington. She has been a teacher of music in Keyser and is active in musical circles. The only son of Doctor and Mrs. Stayman is Joseph Webster, Jr., born in 1915, and one daughter, Martha Shelley, born in 1921.

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History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 2, Part 37

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