History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 2, Part 45

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Edward T. Tyree was born at Martinsville, Virginia, September 16, 1869, and is a son of Joseph Peter and Mary Elizabeth (Jamerson) Tyrce, both likewise natives of that state. Joseph P. Tyree was a skilled machinist and long conducted a machine shop at Martinsville, Virgima. He served as a loyal soldier of the Confederacy during the en tire period of the Civil war, and was a member of a Virginia regiment in the brigade commanded hy Gen. "Stonewall" Jackson.

After attending the public schools of his native village Edward T. Tyree completed a course in the celebrated East man Business College at Poughkeepsie, New York in which he was graduated in 1992 as a well qualified bookkeeper and. accountant. For eighteen years thereafter he was in the service of the People's National Bank of Martinsville, Vr- ginia, and he was its assistant cashier when he severed how connection in 1909 and accepted the position of cashier of the Flat Top National Bank at Bluefield, West Virginia. He has been a resourceful factor in the progressive func tioning of this substantial and representative finan ial in stitution, and continued his service ns cashier until he was elected to his present office, that of second vice president. He is an active and valued member of the Itluefied Chamber of Commerce, and is a member of the Bluefield Country Club. He owns and occupies one of the attractive hom " of Bluefield, and aside from business affairs be finds his chief diversion in gardening and the cultivating of flowers. H . political allegiance, never marked by office seeking pro elivities, is given to the democratic party, and he and his

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wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.

In 1898, in his native town of Martinsville, Virginia, Mr. Tyree wedded Miss Nannie Dickenson Stone, daughter of Clack and Cassie A. (Barrow) Stone, both natives of Vir- ginia, where the father was a prosperous merchant in Pittsylvania County. Mr. and Mrs. Tyree became the par- ents of four children: Edward T. died in 1910; Alvah L. is a college student at the time of this writing; Mary Helen died at the age of eight months; and Harry Stuart is the youngest autocrat of the parental home circle.

WAITMAN C. GIVEN established his residence in the City of Bluefield, Mercer County, in the year 1911, and here engaged in the real estate and insurance business. He continued to give his attention primarily to this line of enterprise until the spring of 1917, when he became asso- ciated in the organization and incorporation of the Com- mercial Bank of Bluefield, of which he has since served as cashier and to the development of the substantial business of which his careful and progressive exccutive policies have contributed in large measure. Mr. Given has identified himself most completely with local interests, is an active member of the Chamber of Commerce and the Rotary Club, and holds membership in the Bluefield Country Club and the Falls Mills Hunting and Fishing Club, his chief diversion being found in hunting and fishing. He is a democrat in polities, and he and his wife hold membership in the Meth- odist Episcopal Church, South.

In 1911, at Bluefield, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Given and Miss Bess MeCulloch, daughter of John R. McCulloch, and the two children of this union are Eliza- beth and Waitman C., Jr.

Mr. Given was born in Braxton County, this state, De- cember 28, 1884, and his parents, Reynold and Virginia (McMorrow) Given, still reside on their homestead farm in that county. Both the Given and McMorrow families were early founded in Virginia, and the parents of the subject of this sketch were born in that part of the Old Dominion State that now constitutes West Virginia. The genealogy of Mr. Given traces back to stanch Scotch and Irish origin. Reynold Given and his wife are zealous members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and a brother is a clergyman of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.

Waitman C. Given supplemented the discipline of the public schools by a course in the Mountain State Business College at Parkersburg, in which he was graduated in 1909. Thereafter he engaged in the insurance business, continued for a time to be associated with farm enterprise, and he had also gained a record of successful work as a teacher in the rural schools prior to establishing himself in business at Bluefield.

ELDER JOHN GREEN MCNEELY. For many years a local minister of the Christian Church, Elder MeNeely has de- veloped his special talents as the need for their exercise has appeared, and he has probably made himself useful to as large a number of individuals as any citizen in Logan County. His home is at Man, where he is a merchant and funeral director. He is also a member of the County Court.

Mr. McNeely was born at the mouth of Peach Creek, two miles west of Logan, on the old McNeely homestead, .October 29, 1871. He is one of the few men active in the affairs of this locality who are of native stock. His parents were Elliott and Susie (White) McNeely. His grandfather, Samuel MeNeely, was a son of Samuel MeNeely, Sr., and the former was a boy when the family came into the Guyan- dotte Valley and settled on land now including the site of Stollings. Elliott MeNeely was born at the month of Peach Creek in 1847, and he now lives at Aracoma, just across the Guyandotte from the City of Logan. For a number of years he was a farmer, but later he and his son John G., opened a store at Logan, the son soon turning over his share of the business to the father, who still continues it. This business was started in 1900, before a railroad was built, and their stock of goods was hauled from Dingess on the Norfolk & Western Railroad. Mrs. Elliott McNeely died in 1921, at the age of sixty-six, her two children being John

G. and Mary. The latter is the wife of Lewis McDonald, and they live on Crooked Creek.

John G. MeNeely acquired his early education in home schools, and the temple of learning was a log house both on Peach Creek and also on Mill Creek. When he was twenty years of age he joined the Christian Church, and at the age of twenty-one began holding services as a local minister. He has directed the work of a number of churches and has built many houses of worship. In 1907 he was a student of theology at Bethany College. In the meantime, in 1900, he opened a store at the mouth of Crooked Creek, and he kept in stock every article and commodity which he thought would be required by the demands of the local trade. He also bought all kinds of country produce. From there in 1918 Mr. MeNeely moved to Man and opened a furniture and undertaking business. He completed a course in Clarke's School of embalming at Cincinnati in 1914. For three years following he had charge of the undertaking department of the Logan Mercantile Company at Logan.

Mr. MeNeely was elected in 1906 county assessor, serving four years, and the duties of that office brought him the acquaintance of every voter in the county at the time. In 1919 he was appointed a member of the County Court to serve the nnexpired term of Bruce McDonald, who had resigned. He was regularly elected to the office in 1920. While he has been on the board a great deal of attention has been paid to the highway system of Logan and the construction of permanent roads. Mr. MeNeely is a member of the board of directors of the Merchants and Miners Bank of Man.

He married in 1901 Miss Yantus Hale, danghter of David Hale, of Logan, To their marriage were born three sons and three daughters: Luther, in the mines of Durfee, West Virginia; Willia, `wife of H. V. Suiter, mine electrician; while the younger children are Tracy, Bethel, Ruth and James. Mr. MeNeely is affiliated with the Lodge of Masons at Williamson, Logan Chapter, R. A. M., belongs to the Subordinate and Encampment degrees of Odd Fellowship and has sat in the Grand Lodge, and is a member of the Knights of Pythias, Redmen and the Moose. In politics he is a democrat.

THOMAS J. FARLEY, M. D. In the ten years since lie graduated in medicine Doctor Farley's working experience has been chiefly in mining practice. For several years his home has been at Lorado in Logan County, where he has charge of the medical practice for Mines Nos. 1, 2 and 3 of the Lorain Coal and Dock Company.

The medical profession has had distinguished service from the Farley family. Doctor Farley is one of five brothers who dedicated themselves to this great calling. They all grew up in Mingo County, and with one exception they are still practicing in this part of the state. .

Their parents were Thomas B. and Nancy Jane (Pinson) Farley, the former a native of Virginia and the latter born on John's Creek in Pike County, Kentucky, sister of Pepper Jim Pinson, Thomas B. Farley died in 1919, at the age of eighty-one, and his wife in 1921, age seventy-eight. At the time of the Civil war the Farley family lived just below the present site of the City of Williamson. Thomas B. Farley was a Confederate soldier in General Earley's cavalry. He was taken prisoner at Cedar Creek in the Shenandoah Valley, and spent the rest of the war as pris- oner at Point Lookout. In one battle while lying on the ground shooting at the enemy he was hit by a bullet that passed through his chin and lodged against his chest. After the war he moved to Burch on Elk Creek, a tributary of Pigeon Creek, and owned a tract of land in the Elk Valley extending for about two miles. He was a prosperous farmer and a widely known and influential citizen. He served many years as justice of the peace, and was elected and served eight years as county assessor. In the race for county assessor he had four competitors, and came within a few ballots of receiving a majority of the total votes, He was a member of the Christian Church and his wife, a Baptist. In politics he was a democrat.

Is of Blackshem

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The family of this old couple comprise fourteen children, hirteen of whom reached mature years. The five sons that veeame physicians were all school teachers when young men ad earned the money necessary to defray their medical ollege expenses. The physician brothers were: W. F. Farley, of Holden, Logan County; Dr. A. A., who was in practice at Huntington when he died in 1913; Dr. II. II., associated with the Logaa Hospital; Dr. Thomas J .; and Or. R. F., who is located at Bureb and was in command of Base Hospital No. 66 in France during the World war. All hexe aons attended medical college at Louisville, Kentucky. Another son, James A., was deputy United States marshal, ind is now deputy sheriff of Minago County. Two other children were John and Ance, twins, now on the old home stead on Elk Creek.

Dr. Thomas J. Farley was born at Burch in Mingo County, November 2, 1584, and acquired his early educa- ion in the Rock-House High School and the Concord State Normal at Athens. He taught live terms of school in Mingo ind MeDowell counties. The first school was at the month of Elk Creek, and while teaching he walked two and a half miles to and from school, which was held in a little lug house. He received a salary of $25 per month as teacher, and be fed the stock on the farm before and after school hours. For a time he worked as a freight handler in the depot at Williamson. In 1909 Doetor Farley took up the study of medicine, and graduated in 1913 from the Uni- versity of Louisville. During 1914 he was an interne in the City Hospital there. Ile passed the examination before the State Medical Board of Kentucky as well as West Virginia. For about six months he did relief work in the absence of the regular physician at Holden in Logan County, and then for a time was located at Pond Creek in Pike County, Ken- tucky, for the United States Coal and Oil Company. From there he returned to Holden and had charge of the practice for Mines Nos. 3 and 4 two years, and since then his service has been as mine physician at Lorado in Logan County.

Doctor Farley began his career as a physician with a burden of $2,700 debt contracted for his medical education, but in a few years he had paid off that obligation.

On January 16, 19IS, he married Mary Katherine Jaek- son, of Virginia. Her mother was in charge of the Mine Club House at Pond Creek, Kentucky. Mrs. Farley is a graduate nurse of the City Hospital of St. Louis, and is member of the Presbyterian Church. They have two sons Thomas J., Jr., and James Albert. Doctor Farley is affiliated with the Redmen, Knights of Pythias, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and the Masonic Order.

BENJAMIN F. BLACKSHERE. A proper history of the Mannington community in Marion County could not be written without repeated reference to the enterprise of members of the Blackshere family connection. They were not only early settlers in point of time, but they were leaders in point of progress. One of the best known and most pros- perous of the family was the late Benjamin F. Blackshere, who spent his entire life in that locality.

Benjamin F. Blackshere was born in Marion County March 1, 1844. His father was named Elias Blackshere and his grandfather Ebenezer Blackshere. Ebenezer Black- shere was a New Jersey man, fought as a soldier in the war of 1812, and in 1830 brought his family to West Virginia and established a home in what later became Marion County. It was due to his enterprise that the first store was built and opened for business on the site of what is now Mannington. For several years this was the only point at which merchandise could be bought between Fairmont and Pine Grove. Elias Blackshere was born in New Jersey, and was a youth when he came to Marion County in 1830. His sons Benjamin F., and John Blackshere, organized the first bank in Mannington.

The late Benjamin F. Blackshere had only the advantages of the common schools of his day and an Academy at Morgan- town, and when his education was finished he returned to the old homestead and engaged extensively in farming and stock raising. He was active in this business for many years. About thirty years ago oil was discovered on his land, and the oil development there has to an important

extent interfered with the regular furunng operations Dur- ing his lifetime many wells were sunk and even at this writn y there are about sixty wells still producing on on the old 1. 1

Benjamin F. Blackshere who died February 27, 1913, Hanl ried on April 17, 1878, Miss Leuella M Mapel. She was born in Greene County, Pennsylvania, daughter of Andrew J. and Ruhama (Taylor) Mapel, nutives of the same county. Her father was a merchant at Dunkard, Pennsylvania, I ut about 1873 moved to Manmington, where he conducted the store but subsequently moved to a farmi near the Blackshere plate where his daughter Leuella hved until her marriage

The only child of the late Benjamin F. Blackshere in Harry Franklin Blackshere, one of the permanent young ritizen and business men of Mannington, He was born at the old homestead April 19, 1879. He is interested in many phases of the community's hfc and affairs. His father was a scottish Rite Mason and Shriner Harry 1 .. Blackshere married ou March 21, 1908, Miss Flora Conway hoen of Mannington They have a daughter Patrichia Ann, born July 6, 1921.

RAYMOND F. MACPHAIL has performed probably every detail of work involved in the practical operation of cal mines. lle has used a pick on the face of a coul senm, hus run jumps, has beca mine boss, bas handled the instrument of a mining engineer, and has dirceted an entire coal plant from production to sales. He is one of the well known operators of Logan County, where he is general manager ut the Logan Island Creek Coal Company, whose operations are at Crites Station, Latrobe Post Office, on the Buffalo branch of the Chesapeake & Ohio.

This mine was opened in 1917 by the Logan Eagle Coal Company, and was acquired by the present owners from Bay City, Michigan, in 1921. Mr. MarPhail is a native of Pennsylvania, born in the southwest part of Westmoreland County, November 27, Isss, son of Hugh and Mary Mal Phail. His father was a native of Scotland, and at the nge of twenty-four came to America and entered coal mining in Pennsylvania, and continued that vocation there until huis death in 1898, at the age of fifty nine. He was father of a family of eight sons and four daughters. The following sous have become practical mining men: Joseph, superin tendent of the MacPhad Coal Company at Middlesport, Ohio, George, vice president of the Logan Island Creek Coal Company; Hugh, Jr., a contractor for brick work in mine. at Mount Pleasant, Pennsylvania, and a resident of U'nion town, that state; Raymond F .; and Donald, who is superin tendent of the Logan Island Creck Coal Company. All these men were self educated, and have become successful in different phases of the mine industry.

Raymond F. Macl'hail attended school briefly during his boyhood, and he early began earning his living as a news boy and as a worker in the mines. At the age of fourteen he was operating pumps in Heela Mine No. 1, owned by HI. (. Frick. Ile remained there three years, and from pump man became a chininman with the Engineer Corps. It was at this stage of his life that he realized the necessity of a better education to advance him still higher. Ile, therefore, accepted the terms prescribed by the state permitting him to enter the State Normal School at California, Pennsyl vania. For the privilege of attending this school he obf gated himself to teach for two years. Instead he taught for three years, and his last work was as principal of the First Ward Building at Mount Pleasant, Pennsylvania. Mr. MaePhail also attended the Grove City College in Penn-si vania one year.

After he left school work he removed to Dorchester in Wise County, Virginia, aad successively performed the duties of trainman, payroll clerk, transitman and then super intendent for the Wise Coal and Coke Company. After three years with that corporation he was for one year assistant mine foreman of the Stonega Coal Company in Wise County, from that joined the Clinchfield Coal Corpora tion aa assistant foreman at Wilder, and was promoted to general foreman. After two years he came to the Logan field as general foreman for the Maia Island Creek Mine No. 4, and six months later he became superintendent at Mullins for the Virginia Smokeless Coal Company. After six months he returned to the Logan Field, beginning as

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superintendent of the Cora Coal and Coke Company on Island Creek, and then as general manager of the Cora Mine and the company's mines at Taplin. Following this he was superintendent on Coal River for the Maxine Coal Company's property at Maxine. Just before performing his duties as general manager of the Logan Island Creek Mine he was general manager and part owner of the MacPhail Coal Company at Middlesport, Ohio.

In 1917 Mr. MacPhail married Maxie Rogers, daughter of Mrs. George Rogers, of Norton, Virginia. They have one son, Philip Ray. Mr. MacPhail is a Presbyterian, his wife, a Methodist, and fraternally he is a Scottish Rite Mason, junior member of the lodge at Madison, West Vir- ginia, and Beni-Kedem Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Charleston, and is a republican in politics.

HENRY CLAY THRUSH, of Piedmont, Mineral County, was long and successfully established in the mercantile business in this city, but since 1911 he has here lived virtually re- tired, though he is president of the First National Bank of Lonaconing, Maryland, on the opposite side of the Potomac River from Mineral County. For the past fifteen years he has been a director of the First National Bank of Piedmont, West Virginia, and is also a director of the First National Bank at Keyser, West Virginia.

Mr. Thrush is a representative of one of the sterling pioneer families of what is now Mineral County, West Vir- ginia, which was still a part of Hampshire County, Virginia, at the time of his birth, which here occurred July 27, 1857. His grandfather, Richard Thrush, was reared in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, where the family home was estab- lished upon immigration from Germany. As a young man Richard Thrush accompanied his father into Western Vir- ginia and settled in that part of Hampshire County that is now included in Mineral County, he having become a sue- cessful farmer at a point about midway between Headsville and Keyser and having there remained uutil his death, about 1880, at the venerable age of eighty-six years. He married Fannie Rogers, and of their family of five sons and three daughters, John S. was the first born.

John S. Thrush was born in Hampshire County, Virginia, March 1, 1825, and he passed his entire life in the com- munity of his nativity, his activities having been those of a substantial farmer. He was a loyal supporter of the cause of the Union during the period of the Civil war, though not called into military service, and he was a staneh republieau in politics. He served three terms as county commissioner of Mineral County, and was a member of the county hoard at the time of the construction of the first bridge across the Potomac River from Piedmont to Westernport, Maryland, besides which he officially aided in advancing other public enterprises of great value to Mineral County. He and his wife held membership in the United Brethren Church. He was one of the honored and influential citizens of Mineral County, and here his death occurred on the 15th of April, 1910, his wife having passed away July 20, 1879, at the age of forty-eight years. The maiden name of Mrs. Thrush was Margaret Jane Rollings, and she was a daughter of Ben- jamin and Jane (MeNamar) Rollings. Of the children of Mr. and Mrs. John S. Thrush the subject of this review is the eldest; Aaron L., a farmer in the vicinity of Burling- ton, Mineral County, married Sallie Taylor, and they have two sons and two daughters; John Oliver, who is a Con- gregational minister, with his wife resides at Spencer, Iowa, and they have one son and two daughters; James A., of Keyser, Mineral County, is still identified with farm enter- prise, the maiden name of his wife having been Grace Taylor; William V., a prosperous farmer in the locality where he was born and reared, married Mary Whipp, and they have one child, a son.

Henry Clay Thrush is indebted to the free schools of what is now Mineral County for his early education, and as a boy and youth he had full fellowship with the work of the old home farm, his connection with which continued until he was twenty-three years of age. He then took a clerical position in the general store of George T. Carska- don, of Keyser, who was one of the representative men of Mineral County, and later he served in a similar capacity

for the successor of his former employer. He next passed eighteen months in clerical service in the Piedmont office of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, and he then took a position in the mercantile establishment of Doctor Daily at Pied- mont, who a year later advanced him to the position of head clerk, which he retained four years. He then purchased the stock and business of the doctor, and for the ensuing nine- teen years here conducted a substantial and prosperous enterprise in the handling of dry goods, notions, carpets, house furnishings, etc., his retirement from this business having occurred in 1911. In 1905 he became one of the organizers and incorporators of the First National Bank of Lonaconing, Maryland, which bases its operations on a capital stock of $25,000. He served as vice president of this institution several years and was then, in 1917, elected its president, as successor of M. A. Patrick. As chief executive he is ordering the policies of the bank with marked discrimination and ability.

Mr. Thrush is a loyal republican, his first presidential vote having been cast for Gen. James A. Garfield. He has served as president of the school board of Piedmont for two years, and was city auditor one year. He and his wife are earnest members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South,

At Piedmont, on the 1st of March, 1891, Mr. Thrush mar- ried Miss Catherine J. Carr, a daughter of Thomas and Jane (Mundy) Carr, whose mortal remains rest in the cemetery at Westernport, Maryland. Mr. Carr was born in England and came with his brother Roseby to the United States, where both entered the employ of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company, Thomas having eventually become superintendent of the line between Keyser and Grafton. Mrs. Thrush was born at Oakland, Maryland, February 21, 1868, and is a member of a family of two sons and five daughters: Roseby, eldest of the children, met an accidental death while in the service of the Maryland Coal Company. He had married Jane Lancaster, who, with one daughter, survived him. Lee is the wife of Hardin Parr, of Western- port, Maryland. Victoria R. is the widow of J. William Davis, of Piedmont. Miss Ella resides at Morgantown. Mrs. Thrush was the next in order of birth. Margaret is the wife of Jesse Colehauk, of Fairmont. Mr. and Mrs. Thrush have one child, Beulah Jane, who is the wife of A. L. Waters, a business man of Indianapolis, Indiana, and they have two children, Henry Clay and Jane.

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History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 2, Part 45

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