History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 2, Part 46

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ALLAN L. LUKE, at Piedmont, Mineral County, is a repre- sentative of the fourth generation of the Luke family in the paper manufacturing industry in America, and is man- ager of the large and important business of the West Virginia Pulp & Paper Company, of which his father, the late John G. Luke, was the organizer and the president for many years prior to his death, which occurred October 15, 1921, at St. Luke's Hospital, New York City, following an operation for appendicitis. From the issue of the Paper Trade Journal of October 20, 1921, are taken the following extraets, with minor elimination and paraphrase:

"In the death of Mr. Luke the book-paper industry has lost one of its most splendid ornaments, for he was indeed one of God's own noble men. He was a pioneer in the book-paper industry. It might truthfully be said of him that he was born and reared in the environment of a paper mill, for his father and grandfather before him were en- gaged in the same occupation. Mr. Luke was born in Springfield, Massachusetts, April 29, 1857. Like many sue- cessful business men, Mr. Luke was thrown on his own resources early in life. His first effort in the paper indus- try was at the age of sixteen years, when he was employed in the mill of the Jessup & Moore Paper Company at Rockland, Delaware, of which his father was superintendent at the time. Here he served for some seven years. Later he became superintendent of the paper mill of the Mead & Nixon Company, of Dayton, Ohio; then of the Morrison & Cass Paper Company, of Tyrone, Pennsylvania; later of the Bremaker-Moore Paper Company, of Louisville, Kentucky; and later still of the Richmond Paper Company at Provi- dence, Rhode Island. In the aggregate he served some fifteen years in these several mills. During these years of service his splendid character developed; his active and

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firsty mind absorbed an intimate knowledge of the paper idustry; and his ambition to do something big in that idustry became intensified-an ambition splendidly realized later years of his life.

" With this splendid experience as a foundation, and rged on by this laudable ambition, he in conjunction with is father and brothers organized a company and built a ill at Piedmont, West Virginia, in 1889 for the manu- acture of sulphite pulp. This was but a modest beginning, ut by the exercise of a genius seldom equalled, by untiring adustry and stern courage, by conforming at all times to he dietates of truth and honor, and by the splendid co- perations of his brothers and other business associates his reat ambition was realized at last in the splendid company f which he died as the president and of which he was so ustly proud.

"Of Scotch ancestry, Mr. Luke was clear-minded, foree- ul, industrious, determined, successful; yet no man was sore generous, more modest, more gentle. To have known im intimately was at onee an honor and an inspiration. Te had a splendid confidence in human nature. He trusted is friends and associates with a faith that could not be haken. His friends trusted him withont reserve. With him rom a friendship once formed there was no turning.''

The foregoing appreciative estimate indicates how gracious s the paternal heritage resting upon Allan L. Luke, the mmediate subjeet of this sketeh, and it is gratifying to lote how thoroughly and well he is upholding the prestige of the family name in character and achievement. llis aternal grandfather, William Luke, was born near Creok of Devon, Seetland, about the year 1826, and as a young man came to the United States and first located in New England, as a workman in a paper mill. After leaving New England he entered the employ of the Jessup-Moore Paper Company at Roekland, Delaware, and he continued for many years his connection with this enneern, his death having occurred at Baltimore, Maryland, in 191]. lle mar- ried Rose T. Landsay, and of the children of this union John G., was the eldest; William A. is a resident of Cov- ington, Virginia; Mrs. Isabel Hopkins resides in Baltimore; David L. is a resident of New York City; James L. died at Luke, Maryland, in January, 1905; and Adam K. and Thomas are residents of New York City.

At Greenville, Delaware, John G. Luke married Miss Ella Hope Green, daughter of Charles and Susan (Wilson) Green, and she passed to the life eternal in 1899. Of the children of this union Allan L., of this sketch, is the first born; Rose H. is the wife of George E. Nelson, of Engle- wood New Jersey; Charles W. resides in New York City, with interests also at Cass, West Virginia ; William G. lives in New York City. After the death of his first wife John G. Luke wedded Miss Grace Bulkley, of Arlington, New Jersey, who survives him, as does also their one child, Grace Virginia.

Allan L. Luke was born at Roekland, Neweastle County, Delaware, February 12, 1881, and he places high valuation on the discipline that has been his in connection with the paper-manufacturing industry from the time of his boyhood to the present, his father having developed one of the largest and most important paper manufacturing enter- prises in the United States. He attended sebeel at Pied- mont, West Virginia, where his interests are largely ren- tered, though he maintains his residence at Luke, Maryland, a place named in honor of the family of which he is a representative. Mr. Luke later was a student in the Brook- lyn Polytechnic Institute, Brooklyn, New York, and the University of Virginia at Charlottesville. He learned the pulp and paper business from the ground up, familiarized himself with all departments and details by active service, and is now the manager of the great plant of the West Vir- ginia Pulp & Paper Company at Luke, Maryland, nearly opposite Piedmont, West Virginia, on the Potomae River. He is also president of the Davis National Bank at Pied- ment and a director of the Citizens National Bank at Westernport, Maryland. Like his father, he is a staneh advocate of the principles of the republican party, but he has had no desire for politieal activity or office. He is affiliated with the Masonie fraternity and the Benevolent

and Protective Order of Elks, and he and his wife are com munieants of the Protestant Episcopal Church, In which he is a member of the vestry of the parish at Westernport, Maryland.

On the 12th of October, 1901, at Covington, Virginia, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Luke nnd Mins Nelle Rocke, who was born and reared in that state and who is a daugh ter of Thomas M. nnd Fannie ( Seott) Rocke. Mr. and Mirs Luke have six children: Ella Il., Allan I .. , Jr., John Guthrie, Christine Grey, Helen F. and Charlotte M.

CLAY A. WILCOX, who is now giving effective service By postmaster of the City of Piedmont, Mineral County, has previously made a splendid record as a teacher in the publie schools of this section of West Virginia. He WAS born in Doddridge County, this state. December 23, 1954. and there passed the formative period of his life on the old homestead farm which was the place of his birth. After the discipline of the rural schools had measureably fortified him he became a student in Salem College, in which he wns graduated in June, 1913. In the meanwhile he had taught school at intervals, and in the autumn of 1913 he beenme a teacher in the graded schools of the Piedmont District. Here he continued his successful pedagogic service eight years, and his summer vacations were devoted to elerienl work of varied types. In 1921 he was appointed acting postmaster of Piedmont, and on the 30th of January of the following year he received regular commission as postmaster, by ap pointment of President Harding.

Mr. Wilcox cast his first presidential vote for William Il Taft, and has since continued his unfaltering allegiance to the republican party. Ile is affiliated with the Masonu fraternity, in which he is a member of Osiris Temple of the Mystic Shrine in the City of Wheeling, with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Modern Woodmen of America.

At West Union, Doddridge County, on the 3d of Septem ber, 1913, Mr. Wilcox wedded Miss Lelia Britton, who was there born February 6, 1\$9, a daughter of Marcus and Susan (Bee) Britton. The two children of this union ar Mary Helen and Clay A., Jr. Through the internal line Mrs. Wileox is eligible for membership in the Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution.

The Wileex family was early founded in Virginia, and in that historie old commonwealth was born Nicholas J. Wileex, father of the present postmaster of Piedmont. West Virginia. Nicholas J. Wilcox served as a gallant sol dier of the Union in the Civil war, as a member of n West Virginia regiment, and in later years he vitalized the more gracious memories and associations of his military career by maintaining affiliation with the Grand Army of the Republie. He was a stalwart supporter of the cause of the republican party, and was an honored citizen of Canton, Doddridge County, at the time of his death, May 20, 191t, when sixty-eight years of age. His wife, whose maiden name was Mary J. Knight, was born and reared in Dedd ridge County, a daughter of Henry and Jennie (Sandy Knight, and she was fifty-eight years of age at the time of her death, December 17, 1909. Their children are Mrs. James Ash, William H., Asa W., Daniel R., James O., John I., Clay A. and Miss Susan C.

Rev. William B. Wileox, grandfather of him whose name introduees this article, was a clergyman of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and was a resident of Doddridge County at the time of his death, as was also his wife, whose mn den name was Temperance Van Dyke.

B. WARING PARTRIDGE, JR. The successful operator in insurance must possess qualities which differentiate hin from the handler of almost any other commodity. Ilis is a peculiar field of endeavor, and the men who devote then selves to this line must of necessity have specialized know! edge and an inherent gift for their task. Of the insurance men who have made a success during rrecat years, one who has come rapidly to the forefront is B. Waring Partridge. Jr., of Huntington, until recently general agent for the Reliance Life Insurance Company of Pittsburgh, whose terri tory covers Cabell, Putnam, Logan and neighboring county «

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Mr. Partridge was born at Monticello, Florida, October 15, 1881, a son of Benjamin Waring and Mary (Denham) Partridge. The paternal grandfather of Mr. Partridge, John Partridge, was born in England in 1790 and as a young man immigrated to the United States and became a pioneer planter of Montieello, Florida, where he was also a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church. He passed his entire career at Montieello, where he died in IS51. He married Eliza Waring, who was born at Edgefield, South Carolina, and died at Monticello, Florida, at the age of eighty-three years. She was nine years of age at the time General LaFayette visited the United States, and when the distinguished Frenchman arrived at Columbia, South Carolina, little Miss Waring was one of the flower girls who weleomed him. The maternal grandfather of Mr. Partridge, Andrew Denham, was a Highland Scotchman, horn at Dunbar. He died at the age of sixty-three years at Monticello, Florida, where he had also been a pioneer, and was agent for the Florida Railway and Navigation Company, a position in which he was later succeeded by his son-in-law, Benjamin Waring Partridge, although the name of the railway has changed several times since. Andrew Denham married Adaline Gossen, who was born at Balti- more, Maryland. She was only sixteen years of age at the time of their marriage, and she lived to be ninety-four years old, passing away at Montieello.

Benjamin Waring Partridge, who still resides at Monti- eello, Jefferson County, Florida, was born in that eounty, February 15, 1846, and has spent practically his entire life at Montieello. Ile was only fifteen years of age at the outbreak of the war between the states, but offered his serviees to the Confederate Army, was accepted, and fought bravely all through the four years of struggle. At the present time Mr. Partridge is railroad agent for the Sea- board Air Line, and is the oldest man in point of service in the employ of the company. He likewise owns a farm in the vicinity of Montieello, which is operated by tenants. A staneh democrat in polities, Mr. Partridge has been iden- tified with publie life to some extent, having served as county treasurer of Jefferson County for ten successive terms, or twenty years, and as a supervisor of the county high school and of the township schools for ten years. He still takes an aetive interest in eivie affairs and those of his party. Fraternally he is affiliated with the Independ- ent Order of Odd Fellows, and religiously he and Mrs. Partridge are two of the main pillars of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, of Monticello. Mr. Partridge married Miss Mary Denham, who was born at Bellaire, Leon County, Florida, September 29, 1851, and they became the parents of the following children: John A., pastor of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, of MeDonough, Georgia; Sarah W., a woman of unusual ability and spe- eial aptitude, who during three different state administra- tions, eovering a period of six years, has been in charge of home economie extension work for the State of Florida, is unmarried and a resident of Tallahassee, Florida; Mary E., who has assisted her father sinee 1893, is now in charge of a depot for the Seaboard Air Line; Isabelle E., who died at the age of two years; B. Waring, Jr., of this record; Adaline D., the wife of W. Austin Smith, a general and consulting engineer of Huntington; Eliza W., prinei- pal of the high school at Monticello, who resides with her parents; and Jessie P., the wife of John B. M.Call, of Monticello, the owner of an iee plant, a farmer and a heavy commission broker in peean nuts.

B. Waring Partridge, Jr., attended the publie schools of Montieello, Florida, until he reached the age of sixteen years, at which time he entered the service of the Western Union Telegraph Company at Tampa, Florida, as a telegra- pher and continued in the profession from 1898 until 1910, at various points in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina, and at Washington, D. C., Cineinnati, Ohio, and Baltimore, Maryland. Mr. Partridge was identified with the Western Union until 1901, following which he joined the Associated Press, spending two years in han- lling newspaper matter, and finally became an operator in brokers' offices. On July I, 1909, Mr. Partridge eame to

Huntington, and June 23, 1910, gave up telegraphy. On July I he embarked in the real estate business on his own account, and this he still follows, although recently only as a side line, his insurance business having grown to such proportions as to demand praetieally all of his attention. In 1913 Mr. Partridge became general agent for the Reli- anee Life Insurance Company of Pittsburgh, a position which he held till June 22, 1922, his territory eovering Cabell, Putnam and Logan counties, as well as several others adjoining. He is now general agent for West Vir- ginia for the National Life Insurance Company of the U. S. A. of 29 S. La Salle St., Chicago. He is ae- counted one of the best informed and most capable insur- ance men in this section. He is likewise interested in the coal business as secretary and treasurer of the Oriole Coal Company of Huntington. Politieally he is a demoerat, and his religious connection is with the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, in which he is a Sunday school teacher. He owns a modern residence at No. 2934 Staunton Road, Huntington.

On December 21, 1904, Mr. Partridge married at At- lanta, Georgia, Miss May Garnet Asbury, daughter of Charles Wade and Ada H. (Huggins) Asbury, residents of Atlanta, Georgia, ont of which eity Mr. Asbury travels as the representative of a large wholesale honse. Mr. and Mrs. Partridge have two children: May Denham, born September 22, 1906; and Benjamin Waring, 111., born March 9, 1915.

DANIEL M. BRICKEY, M. D., who resides at Manbar, Logan County, and controls a large general practice as official physician and surgeon in the neighboring mining distriet at Earling, was born at Willard, Carter County, Kentucky, December 30, 1881, and is a son of Samuel P. and Mary ( Baker) Briekey, the former of whom now resides at Ashland, that state, and the latter of whom died in 1913, at the age of fifty-one years. The marriage of the parents was solemnized in Seott County, Virginia, where the bride was born and reared, and in 1879 they established their resi- denee in Carter County, Kentucky. The faim owned by Samuel P. Brickey lies partly within the City of Ashland, and there he raises garden truck for the city market. He has given a number of years of effective service as a elergy- man of the Baptist Church, and is a democrat in polities.

Doctor Brickey, the eldest in a family of ten children, attended the public schools of Ashland, and as a youth he worked at the carpenter trade and also as a coal miner. He carefully saved his earnings in order to realize his ambition, that of entering the medieal profession. He began the study of medieine in 1905, and thereafter paid the ex- penses of his course in the medical department of the University of Louisville, in which he was graduated in 1911, with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. Ile initiated prae- tiee at Princess, Boyd County Kentucky, where he remained eighteen months, after which he practiced for a similar period in the City of Ashland. His next professional work, for nineteen months, was at the coal mines in Letcher County, Kentucky, and thereafter he indulged in a five months' vacation, which he largely passed in a fishing ex- eursion along the Lieking River in Kentucky. Sinee that time he had been successfully established in mine praetiee in Logan County, West Virginia, where he is official physi- eian and surgeon for the Logan Mining Company at Earling, and the Manbar Mining Company at Manbar, at which latter point he is giving similar service with the Gnyan Mining Company and the Rich Creek Coal Company, which latter corporation he also represents at Lyburn. He has an important and heavy practice, and in his work has ineidentally given special attention to the diseases of the eye, ear, nose and throat. The doetor maintains affiliation with the Logan County and the West Virginia State Medical societies and the American Medical Association, his politieal support being given to the democratie party and he and his wife being members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.

December 25, 1905, recorded the marriage of Doetor

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Briekey and Miss Naoma Horne, daughter of John Horne, of Ashland, Kentucky, and the four children of this union ure Orpha, Clarence, Gladys and Margaret Louise Brickey.

FRED A. OHLINGER is functioning in a constructive way through his effective service as superintendent of the Man- bar Mine of the Manbar Coal Company in Logan County. This mine, at Manbar, was opened in 1910 by P. J. and J. S. R. Riley, of Iluntington, these brothers having been pioneers in development work in the coal field in Logan County.

Mr. Ohlinger was born at Sewell. a coal town in Fayette County, West Virginia, on the 14th of November, 18:4, and is a son of Michael and Katharine (Ilohenstott) Oh- linger, both natives of Pomeroy, Ohio, and both of staneh Holland Dutch aneestry. Michael Ohlinger was first identi- fied with coal mining in the Ohio field, but became a pioneer in the mining of eoal in West Virginia, to which state he came fifty years ago. He worked in mines opened in the New River field at Nettleburg, and continued his active association with mining industry in this state until 1914, since which time he has maintained his home on his fine little farm in Fayette County, he being now (1922) seventy- four years of age. His wife passed away December 30, 1914, at the age of sixty years. He was a Union soldier during the last year of the Civil war, is a democrat in polities and is a sincere member of the Presbyterian Church, as was also his wife. They became the parents of ten ehil- dren, of whom three of the four sons are living. Edward II. is mine foreman with the Cabin Creck Consolidated Coal Company at Kayford, Kanawha County and John is with the Maryland Coal Company at Winona, Fayette County.

The schools of his native county afforded Fred A. Oh- linger his youthful education, and in 1912 he completed a commercial course in the Dunsmore Business College at Staunton, Virginia, he having paid his expenses by the medium of money which he had earned in mine work, with which he became identified when he was a boy of fourteen years, his initial service having been as a trapper at the inine with which his father was connected. At Lookout, Fayette County, he continued for some time in the employ of the Bloom Coal Company. later was with the Keeneys Creek Collieries Company at Winona, and thereafter was in service with the Lookout Coal Company until 1912, in which year he attended business college, as noted above. After leaving this school he came to Manbar, where he is mine superintendent, store manager and payroll elerk for the Manhar Coal Company, besides having supervision of the Joeal postoffice. He is actively affiliated with the Knights of Pythias and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.

EARL JENKINS, the efficient superintendent of the Earling mines of the Logan Mining Company at Earling, Logan County was born at Viga, Jackson County, Ohio, on the 12th of July, 1573, and is a son of Cyrus and Ann (Jen- kins) Jenkins, both likewise natives of Jackson County, where they still reside on their fine old homestead farm, the former being, in 1922, seventy-five and the latter seventy-one years of age, and both having heen for many years earnest and active members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Cyrus Jenkins was a gallant young soldier of the Union in the Civil war, in which he served under General Sherman and took part in many engagements, including a large num- her of major battles. Ile is a man of independent thought and action, well fortified in his convictions, and has long been numbered among the substantial farmers of his native county.

Earl Jenkins, second in a family of three children, was reared on the home farm and profited by the advantages of the public schools of the locality. At the age of seventeen years he became associated with railroad construction work, and later he was for five years in the employ of the Wellston Coal Company at Wellston, Ohio. At the time when the first coal mines were being opened in Raleigh County, West Virginia, Mr. Jenkins came to this state with T. J. Morgan, and as a miner assisted in opening the mines of the Raleigh Coal & Coke Company, with which corporation he there con- tinned his connection nine years, during two of which he was

employed in its general store He was next associated with the same company in the opening of the Buffalo Thack r for which he is now superitch lent nt baring, he having in 1916, entered the servire of the Logan Mining Company mines at Clothier, Logan County, where he held the ponton of mine superintendent. Thereafter he opened mines for the Coal Valley Mining Company en S roe Fork of the Little Coal River. lle then refradied four years, and then, previously served for a time as manager of the ompany 's general store. To fortify himself further for his ch n vocation Mr. Jenkins completed a number of years ago an effective course in mining engineering through the me lum of the International Correspondence Schools at Serait n. Pennsylvania, and he has continued n close student of mat ters pertaining to the mining industry, in all practi al details of which he has had wide and varied experience. He was on the field at the time of the industrial conflit in the mining district of Raleigh County, and has had h avy responsibilities also in connection with the re ent troubles with the mniners' union, which attempted to invade the Logan and Mingo fields. He is consistently to be de ignato l as a pioncer in connection with coal mining enterprise in West Virginia, and has here mado a record of splendid achievement. lle is a republican with somewhat ind pendent proelivities, he and his wife hold membership in the Methodist Church, and in the Masonic fratern ty he is affiliated with the Blue Lodge at Madison, the ( after at Logan, the Commandery of Knights Templars in the City of Iluntington, and Beni-Kedem Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S. In 1911 Mr. Jenkins wedded Miss Letitia Ward, daughter of William Ward, of Logan County, and the four children of this union are Earl, Jr., Grace, Lucile and Carl.

WILLIAM T. MCCLELLAN, M. D. At Ethel, Logan County, Doctor MeClellan is the resourceful and popular physician and surgeon in charge of the mine practice of the Sunteam Coal Company, the Fort Branch Coal Company. the Logan Mining Company. the Western United Corporation, the Argyle Coal Company No. 2, and the Georges Creek Coal Company.

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History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 2, Part 46

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