History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 2, Part 41

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Mr. Parrish was one of the organizers in 1916 of the Bluefield National Bank, which opened its doors for busi- ness in Mareb, 1917. Mr. Parrish was the first enshier, and was made president in January, 1921, to succeed Mr. Will- iam Leekie, deceased. Mr. Parrish in 1918 organized and became the first president of the First National Bank of Matoaka, and is still a director. While at Williamson be was secretary of Group 6 of the West Virginia State Bank- ers Association.

In 1909. at Peterstown, Monroe County, West Virginia, Mr. Parrish married Miss May Callaway, daughter of Lewis and Wilda (IIunter) Callaway. Her father for many years was county clerk of Monroe County. Mr. and Mrs. Parrish have one daughter, Alethea Hunter Parrish. They are mem- hers of the Presbyterian Church, Mr. Parrish being an elder. He is a Royal Arch and Knight Templar Mason and Shriner, a director in the Chamber of Commerce, a member of the National Advisory Board of the Old Colony Club, and he organized the Rotary Club at Bluefield and was its first president, holding that office two and a half years. He is a member of the Bluefield Country Club and the New Mer- cer County Country Club, one of his recreationa being the game of golf.

W. S. PHELPS bas had a long and active commercial ca. reer, and for a number of years has been a merchant at Bluefield, where he is proprietor of the Phelps Furniture Company.

Mr. Phelps was born October 14, 1-67, at Boone Mils. Virginia, son of A. J. and A. A. (Boone) Phelps, the for- mer a native of Tennessee and the latter of Boone Mills. All his ancestors were early Virgininns, some of them be- ing in the Revolutionary war. On his mother's side Mr Phelps is descended from the family that comprised the Boone settlement in Virginia in early Colonial timen. ... . J Phelps served as a Confederate soldier four years, all through the war, and the rest of his life was deveted in farming.

W. S. Phelps acquired a common = hool eluention nt

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Boone Mille and as a youth went to work for the Fishburn Brothers, tobacco manufacturers and dealers at Roanoke, Virginia. He continued in the tobacco business for sixteen years as a salesman, covering practically the entire Middle West, with headquarters at Memphis. On leaving the to- bacco business he chose Bluefield as the city with the great- est opportunities for the future, and entered the furniture business. He has built up a splendid enterprise in that line, and in 1909 incorporated the Phelps Furniture Com- pany, in which he has the controlling interest.

November 17, 1897, at Roanoke, Virginia, Mr. Phelps married Miss Eula Richardson, daughter of D. P. Richard- son, who is living in the same house where she was born at Roanoke. Mr. and Mrs. Phelps are members of the Bap- tist Church. He is a Royal Arch Mason and a member of the United Commercial Travelers, the Chamber of Com- merce and the Falls Mills Fishing Club.

FRENCH MCCRAY, LL. B. (West Virginia University) 1909, LL. B. (Ohio State University) 1910, is established in the successful practice of his profession in the City of Fairmont, Marion County, is one of the representative lawyers of that community and Divorce Commissioner of Marion County.

He was born at Fairmont, February 21, 1883, and is a representative of families whose names have been long and prominently identified with the history of the northern part of West Virginia. His mother, whose maiden name was Martha Virginia Prichard, was a daughter of the late Thomas and Mahala Prichard and a niece of the late Capt. Amos N. Prichard, of Mannington. His father, Charles Edward McCray, one of Fairmont's oldest, hest- known and most prosperous citizens, was born in Harrison County, Virginia, (now West Virginia), as were also the latter's parents, John Elliott and Rebecca (Cunningham) McCray, the latter a granddaughter of John Dragoo, a pio- neer settler of that section.

French McCray was graduated from the Fairmont High School in May, 1904, and thereafter continued his studies at the Fairmont State Normal School during the year 1904- 05. The following fall he entered the Ohio State University (Columbus), which institution he attended during the four years 1905-08, 1909-10, College of Arts-Law, and received the degree Bachelor of Laws in June 1910. During 1908-09 he attended the West Virginia University, College of Law, from which school he was graduated in June, 1909, with the degree of Bachelor of Laws.

Mr. McCray was admitted to the bar of his native state April 8, 1910. On the 28th day of June, 1910, he was admitted to the bar of the State of Ohio, an honor earned by the successful passing of the rigid bar examination re- quired by that state; and likewise, on November 5, 1910, he was admitted to the bar of the State of Indiana. In November, 1917, he was also admitted to the bar of the United States District and Circuit Courts. Since November, 1910, he has been actively engaged in the general practice of his profession at Fairmont, with a record of excellent achievement as a resourceful trial lawyer and able counselor. During the 1911 and 1913 sessions he was special counsel for the Standard Oil Company at the West Virginia Legis- lature. At present Mr. McCray holds the position of Divorce Commissioner for Marion County to which place he was appointed by the Circuit Court of said county July 12, 1922.

He is a member of the Southern Club (Ohio State), Sphinx Fraternity (West Virginia), "Sons of the Revolu- tion," Knights of Malta (Fairmont), Marion County and West Virginia Bar associations. His political allegiance is given to the republican party, and he and his wife hold membership in the First Methodist Episcopal Church at Fairmont.

April 28, 1913, was the date of Mr. McCray's marriage with Miss Mary Rhea Flinchhaugh, who was born in Columbus, Ohio. She is a daughter of John H. and Alice (Alexander) Flinchbaugh, of Columbus, both natives of the State of Ohio. Mr. and Mrs. McCray have a daughter, Alice Ann, who was born in the spring of 1921.

FRANK JOHN WILLFONO has shown much discrimination and resourcefulness in the work of his profession, that of civil engineer, has served as county surveyor of Marion County, and is at the present time the county road engi- neer of this important county, with residence and official headquarters in the City of Fairmont.

Mr. Willfong is a representative of one of the old and influential families of what is now the State of West Vir- ginia. His paternal grandfather, George Willfong, was born in one of the Virginia counties east of the Alleghany Mountains and was a boy at the time of the family re- moval to the present Upshur County, West Virginia, where his father became a pioneer farmer and substantial citizen. The paternal grandfather of George Willfong was born and reared in Holland, and upon coming to America became a member of one of the Dutch settlements in Virginia. George Willfong continued his residence in Upshur County until about the year 1855, when he removed with his family to Opekiska District, Monongalia County, where he continued his association with farm enterprise and where both he and his wife remained until their deaths.

Frank John Willfong was born at Opekiska in Clinton District, Monongalia County, February 12, 1885, and is a son of Charles and Margaret (Hildebrand) Willfong, the former of whom was born in Upshur County, in 1848, and the latter was born on the old Hildebrand homestead farm in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, across the Ohio River from Pittsburgh, the year of her nativity having heen 1850 and her parents having been John and Mary (Wooster) Hildebrand. Both the Hildebrand and Wooster families were founded in America in the Colonial period of our national history, and representatives of the latter were patriot soldiers in the war of the Revolution, on which score the subject of this review is eligible for membership in the Sons of the American Revolution. The original progenitors of the Hildebrand family settled in New Eng- land, and members of the family later removed from Ply- mouth, New Hampshire, and became pioneer settlers in Western Pennsylvania. on land across the river from the present City of Pittsburgh. It is interesting to record that near Plymouth, New Hampshire, there is an old homestead that is still known as the Hildebrand place. Mrs. Margaret (Hildebrand) Willfoug was seven years old when her parents came from Pennsylvania and settled in Monongalia County, West Virginia, as now constituted, her father having there become the owner of 500 acres of land, in Opekiska District, at the head of White Day Creek, he having been compelled to retire from the work of his trade, that of glasshlower, on account of impaired eyesight.

Charles Willfong was a lad of seven years at the time of the family removal from Upshur County to Monongalia County, in which latter he was reared on the home farm, the while he duly profited by the advantages of the com- mon schools of the locality. He became a successful ex- ponent of farm industry in that county, and was also in the employ of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company at Opekiska until 1918, since which year he has been living retired at Fairmont, both he and his wife being well-known and highly esteemed citizens of this city.

Frank J. Willfong gained his early education principally in the public schools of Opekiska, and as a youth he mani- fested a distinct predilection for civil engineering, his in- terest in which was such that he determined to prepare himself for the profession. He procured textbooks and devoted himself earnestly to the study of the technical de- tails of his chosen vocation, the while he gained coincident experience of practical order by serving as a rodman in connection with surveying work for the Davis Coal Company of Thomas, Kanawha County. By this fortunate combina- tion he was enabled to make substantial progress in civil engineering, and he continued in the employ of the Davis Coal Company for two years. He then entered the employ of the Fairmont Traction Company as chain man and in- strument man in engineering work, and after continuing this connection six years he served two years as assistant city engineer of Fairmont under S. B. Miller. In 1913 he was elected county surveyor of Marion County, and upon

Charles Edward Bishop

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assuming his official duties he was also made county road ngineer through appointment by the County Court. 1Ie ontinued his etficient services as county surveyor until the xpiration of his term, on the 1st of January, 1921, and as sinee retained the post of county road engineer, nn flive in which he has been able and still continues to give aluable service, as the construction and maintenance of rood roads is one of the most important phases of pro- ressive enterprise in any section or community.

In 1909 Mr. Willfong wedded Miss Audra Louise Ken- kedy, who was born and reared in Monongalia County and who is a daughter of Coleman and Susan Kennedy. Mr. nd Mrs. Willfong became the parents of three children: Albert Kennedy, aged eleven years (1922) ; Alfred Ler. who died in 1918, aged two years; and Anna Lee, three ears of age in 1922.

CHARLES EDWARD BISHOP, PH. D., head of the department of Greek at West Virginia University, has been a prominent igure in American classical scholarship for many years, and las guided many successive generations of college and uni- ersity classes so as to inspire in them an enduring affection or the language and literature of ancient Greece and Romc. Doctor Bishop was born May 19, 1861, at Petersburg, Virginia. His father was Carter R. Bishop, a business aan and banker of Petersburg, and for many years a citizen who enjoyed leadership because his character and integrity ommanded it. As a banker he held the unqualified confi- lence of his fellow citizens, a confidence that was repaid y him during the great panic of 1873, when his bank was he only one in Petersburg to weather that disastrous inancial storm. He was too old for active military duty luring the Civil war, but became a member of the Reserves. He was born on the James River in Virginia in 1920, of he old Carter family of that state. He died in 1875. His vife, Mary Elizabeth Head, was a native of Rhode Island ind of New England ancestry. She died in 1863.

Charles Edward Bishop was only fourteen years of age when his father died. However, he was accorded the advantages of the best schools of his native state, attending he McCabe School at Petersburg, spent two years in the University of Virginia, where he was appointed instructor n Greek for the second year, and for two years was a eacher in the McGuire School at Richmond. Iu 1885 Doc- or Bishop went abroad and for four years was a student of Greck, Latin and Sanskrit at Leipsic University, where he was offered the post of Famulus in Sanskrit. As was he custom among classical students there, the spoken anguage in all class work was Latin. Doctor Bishop re- cived his Ph. D. degree from Leipsic University in 1859.

In that year, on his return to the United States, he became professor of Latin at Emory and Henry College n Virginia, where he remained three years. In 1892 he .ook the chair of Greek and modern languages at William ind Mary College in Virginia. Doctor Bishop was ordained o the Presbyterian ministry in 1900 and is now a member of the Grafton Presbytery of West Virginia. He has been professor of Greek at West Virginia University at Morgan- own since 1912.

Doctor Bishop is a noted authority on many subjects of he Greck Syntax. His Doctor's thesis in Germany was on he Greek Verbal in Teos in Acsehylos. He prepared a paper on "Greek Verbal in Tos in Sophocles" for the American Journal of Philology, and is also author of a series of contributions on "The Verbal in Tcos from Hemer to Aristotle."' He is a member of the American Philological Association, and of the Classical Association of the Middle West and South, having been appointed vice president of the same for West Virginia, a member of the Pittsburg Philological Association, and is a charter member of the Phi Beta Kappa honorary scholarship fraternity, his membership dating from the reorganization or revival of that fraternity. He is also a member of the American Archaeological Society.

In 1892, in England, Doctor Bishop married Alice M. Hensley, of London, daughter of a London physician. Her ancle, Sir Robert Hensley, was knighted by King Edward. Doctor and Mrs. Bishop have three children: Charles Eric,

now a business man of New York City , Ernet Edward. M. D., a practicing physician at Cincinnati, and t'arter Richard, who is a tencher in West Virginia.

GRADY VEER MORGAN, M. D., who is engaged in the prac tice of his profession in the City of Fairmont, Marion County, is a representative of a family whowe name has been one of distinctive prominence in the history of Northern West Virginia, the t'ity of Morgantown here perpet nting the family name and prestige.

Doctor Morgan was born at Downs, Marion County, D. eember 26, 1993, a son of Lloyd E. and Virginia l'arich Morgan, both likewise natives of this county, where the former was born in 1-54 and the latter in Isto, a daughter of the late Edward Parish. Lloyd E. Morgan was engagel in mercantile business at various points in his native counts until 1910, and he and his wife now reside at Fairmont, where he is living retired.

After having attended tho high school nt Mannington. Ductor Morgan entered the preparatory department of the State Normal School nt Fairmont, and in this institution he continued his studies until his graduation, in 1012, in the academie course and his completion of the normal course in 1913. In 1918 he was graduated from celebrated Eclecti Medien] College in the City of Cincinnati one of the oldest Eclectie institutions in the West, and after thus receiving his degree of Doctor of Medicine he was given charge of the Government Emergency Hospital, located between Metuchen and New Brunswick, New Jersey, where the Government had several hundred men at work in the building of an arsenal in connection with the nation's preparations for participation in the World war. Doctor Morgan has been engaged in active general practice nt Fairmont since 1919, and his ability and personal popularity are attested by the scope and representative character of his clientago. He 14 n member of the Marion County Medical Society and the West Virginia State Medical Society.

July 1, 1916, recorded the marriage of Doctor Morgan and Anna Lulu Thomas, who was born at Grafton, this state, February 10, 1894, a daughter of Martina l'. and Isabel C. (Rosier) Thomas. Mr. Thomas was born at Gratton, August 19, 1859, a son of Garrett E. and Lavara (McGill) Thomas, and a grandson of Garrett Thomas and James McGill, early settlers at Grafton. Mr. Thomas taught school several years and thereafter was for twenty-three years in the employ of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Com- pany. In 1912-13 he served as city collector of Grafton, and he and his wife have been residents of Fairmont since 1914. Dr. and Mrs. Morgan have two sons: Grady Thomas, born March 22, 1917, and William Richard, born December 3, 1919.

THOMAS KING JONES, secretary of the Farmers Mutual Fire Insurance Company of Fairmont, one of the leading insurance concerns of the state, has been a substantial farmer as well as a business man, and the environment and experience of his life have given him every qualification for handling problems of business incident to agriculture.

lle was born at Dent's Run, Grant District, Monongalia County, August 31, 1466, son of John L. and Maria J. (Morris) Jones, natives of the same county. His grand parents were Henry and Mary (Lough) Jones, nudl the former was born in Monongalia County in 1800, spending all his active lifetime on a farm in that county, where he died in 1876. John L. Jones rendered bis active service 0) the vocation of agriculture. He was born ou Little Indian Creek in Monongalia County io 1831, and his wife, Mar ı J. Morris, was born March 3, 1835, and died August 6, 1917. She was a daughter of Barton and Comfort (King Morris, natives of Monongalia County.

Of the four children of John L. Jones and wife Thomas King is the only survivor. The oldest, Barton MI. Jones, was born in Monongalia County, August 15, 1853, acquired his education in the free schools and the University of West Virginia, and for ten years was a farmer and teacher in the county schools and for a term of eight years was a. ssor of the Western District in Menongalia County. For one

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term he was sheriff of the county. He died in 1893, being survived by a widow and five sons. The second child, H. Clark Jenes, was born in Monongalia County, September 14, 1858, had a public school education, attended the State University, and devoted his active years to farming. He died in 1917, and is survived by his widow and ten chil- dren. The only daughter of the family, Mellie E. Jones, was born April 30, 1856, finished her education in the Fair- ment State Normal School, and was a successful teacher for a number of terms. She died October 2, 1893.

Themas K. Jones acquired a free school education in Menongalia County, and as a youth went to work on his father's farm. From that he progressed to the ownership ef a farm of his own, which he extended in acreage and in productive improvements and remained steadily at work on this property fer forty-five years. He only left the farm in 1912, when he moved to Fairmont to assume the office of secretary of the Farmers Mutual Fire Insurance Company.

March 15, 1888, Mr. Jones married Miss Emma Bowers. She was bern October 26, 1867, in Indiana County, Penn- sylvania, daughter of Peter and Rachel Bowers. Her father was also a native of Indiana County, where he spent his active life as a farmer, and during the Civil war he was a Union soldier. His death occurred in 1896.

Mr. and Mrs. Jones have two daughters: Ollie Maria Fairchild, who was bern December 7, 1888, was married September 30, 1916, to M. L. Fortney, of Preston County, West Virginia, and they have ene child, Rachael Fairchild, born May 6, 1918.

Martha Laura Cordelia, the second daughter, was born January 28, 1891. She is the wife of Robert M. Morgan, of Fairmont, manager of the Fairmont Meter Car Company. They have a daughter, Emma Belle, born April 19, 1914.

FRANK EMORY FURBEE has been actively associated with the business life of Mannington fer over three decades, is head of the very prosperous establishment known as the H. R. & F. E. Furbee, extensive dealers in men's and women's wearing apparel and also is president of the Furbee Furniture Company, and through his substantial resources and influence he has contributed to the upbuilding of the little city, especially in its educational institutions.

This is ene of the oldest American families in West Vir- ginia, and in all the generations the name has stood for progress and advancement. The Furbees are of English descent. Benjamin Furbee was born in 1693, on the Dela- ware-Maryland Peninsula. His son was named Bowers. Caleb, a son of Bowers, and the ancestor of the West Vir- ginia branch of the family, was born at Kent, Delaware, November 22, 1752. As a young man he enlisted with the Delaware troops to serve the cause of independence in May, 1775. He was promoted to lieutenant in 1776, and in May, 1777, was in command of a detachment of troops in Captain Caldwell's company under Celonel Pope. Among ether bat- tles he was at Brandywine in 1777, and continued with the patriot armies until independence was achieved.

Caleb Furbee about 1790, with his wife, Sarah, and four seus, Waitman, Jehn, George and Caleb, came to what is now West Virginia, settled near Morgantown, made large purchases of land on Paw Paw Creek, now in Marion County, and lived in the midst of and participated in the development of that section for years, but spent his last days in Tyler County, where the life of this Revolutionary patriot came to its close on April 16, 1837.

Three generations intervene between him and the Man- nington merchant first named above. George Furbee, son of Caleb, was born in Delaware, spent his active life as a farmer and stock-raiser on Paw Paw Creek, and died in 1844. In 1796 he married Elizabeth Prichard. Their chil- dren were James and Elizabeth, the latter marrying Jere- miah Beatty.

James Furbee is the most prominent name associated with the early history of Manningten. He was born in the Paw Paw Creek district, and after some years as a farmer there he bought 800 acres, including the site of the City of Mannington. He founded the town, opened its first store, and guided his personal interests to the welfare of the com- munity ever afterward. Fer many years he was a leading

stock dealer. James Furbee in 1823 married Mary An. Lindsay, daughter of Lindsay and Nellie (Janes) Bogges

Their son was the late Hon. James Hilary Furbee, wh was born at Basnettsville, Marion County, October 18, 182; He found interesting duties in connection with his father' early enterprises at Mannington, and upon the completio of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad through that town i 1852 he was appointed station agent. These were his officia duties until 1862, when he was appointed United State revenue collecter. Soon after the outbreak of the Civil wa he had raised a company for state service, became it captain, and was with the command in repelling threatene invasions from the South.

James H. Furbee in 1878 was elected a member of th West Virginia Legislature, and in 1880 was chosen to seat in the State Senate. However, en account of a techn cality, he was not seated. In 1886 he was again elected b a large majority, and was alse elected in 1892. Perhaps hi most useful service in the Senate was rendered the cause o state education. That was his dominating public motivi He was chairman of the committee on education in the Ser ate. Hardly less important was the twenty years he serve as president of the Board of Education of Mannington Di. trict. During this period his work contributed largely t the establishment of the free school system, and introduce something more than nominal standards for the managemer and conduct of the local schools. His long devotion t church culminated in his election as a lay delegate to tl. General Conference of 1900.

James H. Furbce, whose life of usefulness closed e November 9, 1899, married on October 7, 1855, Sarah . McCey, of Tyler County. Her grandparents, John an Esther (McCarty) McCoy, came from the North of Irelan in 1801, settling first in the Shenandoah Valley and subs quently removing to Middlebourne, Tyler County. The sen, James McCoy, married in Tyler County, Jane Marti: and they were the parents of Sarah J. Furbee, who survive her husband, passing away July 12, 1921.

This brings this interesting family narrative down 1 Frank Emory Furbee, who was born at Mannington, Octeb 11, 1867. Both at home and in school he was well traine for the responsibilities that awaited him. After the publ schools he attended the Fairmont State Normal School, ar in 1890 graduated from Duff's Business College of Pitt burgh. He forthwith entered his father's business, know as J. H. Furbee & Sens, dealers in clothing, shoes and fu nishings at Manningten. Since 1896 this prosperous bus ness has been continned under the title of H. R. & F. ] Furbee. Mr. F. E. Furbee in 1910 became associated wit the organization of the Furbee Furniture Company.

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History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 2, Part 41

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