History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 2, Part 52

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On August 14, 1910, Mr. Hamilton married Eunice Brooke McComas, daughter of Albert McComas, of Mount Gay, Logan County. Their two children are Edith Ann and John Wallace. Mrs. Hamilton is a Methodist. He is a past master of Aracoma Lodge No. 99, A. F. and A. M., is a member of Logan Chapter No. 41, R. A. M., belongs to Kanawha Commandery, K. T., the West Virginia Consistory of Scottish Rite at Wheeling, and the Shrine at Charleston. He is associated with Frank Martin and Naaman Jackson as the other members of the building committee to erect a Masonic Home in Logan. Mr. Hamilton had an active part in the recent troubles in this coal field due to the invasion of union miners from the North. He is a democrat in politics. As superintendent his relationship with his em- ployes has always been cordial, and the men have the con- fidence and respect for him based upon the understanding that he recognizes their point of view. Mr. Hamilton is a director of the Bank of Logan.

JOSEPH WALTER THORNBURY, M. D., is a pioneer in the profession of medicine and surgery in the Triadelphia Dis-

A. J. Braddock.

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triet of Logan County, though be still commands all the vigor of the years of comparative youth. His home is at Man, where he located in 1909. The dozen years since havo sufficed to cover practically the entire period of develop- ment in this region. He was here before the Chesapeake & Ohio built its railroad line into this section and, naturally, the development of the coal deposits following the coming of the railroad.

Doctor Thornbury was born at Glen Ilays on Tug River in Wayne County, West Virginia, August 9, 1881, son of Dr. James Harvey and Nancy Isabel ( York ) Thornbury. Several of his family were physicians before he entered that profession. His mother is a sister of Dr. L. II. York, nt Louisa, Kentucky. She died in 1895, and was a daughter of James D. York. Dr. James Ilarvey Thornbury was born on Marrowbone Creek in Pike County, Kentucky, and is now in active practice of his profession at Stowe, Logan County, West Virginia. As a young man he taught school, and in 1885 began attending medieal lectures in the Cineinnati Eclectic College, and graduated there in 1889. In 1590 he located at Dunslow in Wayne County, and remained there twenty years in the performance of his professional duties, since which time he has looked after his mining practice at Stowe. He did much organization work for the republicao party in Wayne County, and is a member of Vinson Lodge of Masons at Fort Gay. Of the five children born to his marriage four are living: Florence, wife of Dr. Everett Walker, of Wayne; Jane, wife of Dr. B. D. Garrett, of Kenova, Wayne County; Joseph Walter; and Sadie, wife of Samuel Peters, of Kenova.

Joseph Walter Thornbury attended school at Dunslow and was also a student under Professor MeClure at Wayne. He attended the State University in 1898. and for two years following was assistant postmaster of Dunslow, and for one year was at Yukon, Oklahoma. Then he spent another year in the postoffice at Dunslow, and also clerked in a store there. With this varied business training and experi- ence he entered the Cincinnati Eclectic Medical College in 1903, and graduated in 1907. For one year after gradu- ating he practiced at Kermit in Mingo County, and one year at Genoa in Wayne County. From there he came to Man and has had official relations as mine physician to the Man Mining Company, the Eagle Island Bengal Coal Company at Kesler and a large general practice besides. He was one of the organizers of the Merchants and Miners Bank at Man.

Doctor Thornbury is a leader in his seetion in behalf of better educational facilities. Ile served six years on the Triadelphia School Board and a large number of the good modern schools of the distriet were built during his term, including the District High School at Man.

On July 3, 1907, Doetor Thornbury married Bertha JIegner, daughter of Philip Hegner, of Wyoming, Ohio. The five children born to their marriage are James II., Jr., Frances Virginia, Lawrence, John and Nancy Isabel. Mrs. Thornbury is a member of the Baptist Church. Fraternally he is affiliated with Aracoma Lodge No. 99, F. and A. M .. at Logan, Logan Chapter, R. A. M .. Dunslow Lodge, Inde- rendent Order of Odd Fellows, and in polities he is a republican.

FRED V. COOPER has proved his business progressiveness and efficiency in his effective service as cashier of the Bank of Athens at Athens. Mereer County and is one of the popu- lar and representative young business men of his native county. He was born at Bluefield. Mercer County. on the 17th of July, 1895, and is a aon of Elijah F. and Irene E. (Vermillion) Cooper, the former a native of Virginia and the latter of West Virginia. The father was long a success- ful contractor and builder and is now a resident of Beekley, Raleigh County. The Vermillion family was founded in Virginia in the Colonial period of our national history and numerous representatives of the same havo been successful physicians and surgeons.

Mr. Cooper gained his early education in the public achoola at Athens, where he thereafter continued his studiea in the Concord State Normal School, in which he was graduated aa a member of the class of 1915. He then

enterod the University of West Virginia, but after pursuing a course in electrical engineering for one year impaired health compelled him to leave the university. Upon re- covering his physical health he became, in 1917, assistant enshier of the Bank of Athens, and in 1919 he was advanced to his present executive office that of cashier of this sub stantial and well ordered institution. He is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity, is a member of the Mercer County Country Club, through the med um of which he finds oppor- tunity for indulgence in his favorite recreation, that of lown tennis, and he and his wife nre active members of th Methodist Episcopal Church, South.

In 1917, at Athens, was solemn zed the marriage of Mr Cooper and Miss Pearl Preston, whose father, S. V. Preston, is now a successful coal operator at Harland, Kentucky. The attractive home of Mr. and Mrs. Cooper is brightened by the presence of their two children, Irene E. and Harry Fred.

CHARLES M. SCOTT, M. D., began practice at Bluefield twenty years ago. During the last ten years his time and skill have been predominently devoted to surgery. 1114 rank as a surgeon is among the best in the entire state.

Doctor Scott was born at Graham, Tazewell County, Vir ginia, October 3, 1878, son of lames and Nannie ( Hale Scott, being their only child. His parents were natives of Virginia and his father was a farmer. The grandfather, Matthew Seott, was a jeweler and gunsmith, and repaired guns for the Confederate army during the Civil war.

Charles M. Seott acquired a common school education, attended Princeton Academy, the University of West Vir. ginia at Morgantown and Richmond College at Richmond. Virginia. In 1897 he entered the University College of Medieine at Richmond, from which he graduated M. D. in 1901. The following year he hegan practice at Bluefield. where he is handling a general practice, but every year he did special work in surgery and other post graduate courses in the New York Polyclinic, and in 1910 began specializing in surgery, which now comprises eighty per cent of his professional work. In the line of his profession Doctor Seott gave Bluefield a modern institution in St. Luke's Ilospital," which he built and established in 1905, with ac commodations for fifty patients and with every type of modern hospital equipment. Dortor Seott is a busy pro fessional man, has reached a position of ripe achievement. is kindly and generous and one of Bluefield's most useful citizens. He is a member of the County, State and Amer. jean Medical associations and is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons. Doctor Seott is a Baptist, a member of the Chamber of Commerce, Rotary Club und Bluefield Country Club, and is an Elk.

November 10, 1912, at Catlettsburg. Kentucky, he mar ried Miss Hazel Morton, daughter of Dr W. W. and Edith ( IIill) Morton. They have two children, Helen and Charles Seott.

WILLIAM JOHN BRADDOCK is secretary, treasurer and gen eral manager of the Wheeling Bronze Casting Company. a well ordered concern that contributes its quota to the in dustrial and commercial precedence of the West Virginia metropolis. He is one of the representative young busi ness men of his native city his birth having occurred in Wheeling on the 17th of April, 1542. Mr. Braddock is a son of John and Ellen MeGrail) Braddock. the former of whom was born at Johnstown, Pennsylvania, in 1859, and the latter was born in Wheeling, West Virginia, in that same year, she being still a resident of her native city, where her husband died in the year 1991. John Brad doek was renred and educated in the old Keystone State, where the family was founded in an early day, and he was a young man when he enme to West Virginia and engaged in the work of his trade, that of iron-moulder, at Wheeling. Here he passed the remainder of his life. an upright and loyal citizen who commanded unqualified popular esteem. He was a democrat in politics and was a communicant of the Catholic Church. ss is also his widow. Of the two children, William J., of this review, is the elder, and Mary is the wife of Haven Robb, of Wheeling.

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The early education of William J. Braddock was obtained in the parochial schools of St. Mary's Church, in the Eighth Ward of Wheeling, and at the age of fourteen years he entered upon an apprenticeship to the moulder's trade at the Riverside Mills, Benwood, Marshall County, an estab- lishment now owned and operated by the National Tube Company. Here he continued to be employed eight years, and in the meanwhile he became an expert artisan at his trade.

In 1904 Mr. Braddock established a modest brass foundry of his own at 205 Twenty-ninth Street, Wheeling, and after continuing the enterprise in an individual way until 1917 he incorporated the business under the present title of the Wheeling Bronze Casting Company. The business has be- come one of substantial order, and in the autumn of 1921 it was removed from its original location to the fine new plant erected for its use at the corner of Thirty-sixth and McCulloch streets. Here is occupied a modern industrial building that was erected by the company and that is 200 by 100 feet in dimensions. The company gives special attention to the rolling of bronze rods for non-corrosive use, and its products are shipped into most diverse sec- tions of the Union. The executive officers of this pro- gressive corporation are as follows: President, J. W. Mil- lard, of Martins Ferry, Ohio; secretary and treasurer, William J. Braddock.

Mr. Braddock takes lively interest in all that concerns the welfare of his native city, is independent in politics, is affiliated with the local lodge of the Benevolent and Pro- tective Order of Elks, and he and his wife are commnni- cants of the Catholic Church.

In the World war period the plant of the Wheeling Bronze Casting Company was given over largely to the manufac- turing of special parts for use in the equipping of submarine chasers, in the service of the International Ship Building Company and for the United States Emergency Fleet Cor- poration, and Mr. Braddock himself gave loyal support to the various patriotic activities centered in his home city and state.

On April 6, 1904, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Braddock and Miss Virginia Baumann, daughter of John and Lizzetta (Stensel) Banmann, of Wheeling, where the father is a retired dairyman. Mr. and Mrs. Braddock liave three children: Lizzetta, who was born in 1905, and who is now a student in Monnt de Chantal Academy at Wheeling; John, who was born in 1907, and who is, in 1921, attending the Columbia Commercial College at Wheeling; and William, who was born in 1915. The family home is the attractive and modern residence property owned by Mr. Braddock at 212 Pierce Street.

WILLIAM J. COLE has standardized, systematized and put on a commercial basis one of the oldest arts known to man- kind, that of baking bread, and in the Bluefield Bakery, of which he is proprietor, has one of the largest plants of its kind in West Virginia, capable of producing the staff of life for many thousands of people every day.

Mr. Cole was born at Marion in Smith County, Virginia, November 12, 1883, son of L. C. and Elizabeth (Wolf) Cole. The Coles have been in Virginia for a number of generations. His grandfather, William Cole, was a Con- federate soldier in the Civil war.

William J. Cole acquired a common school education at Marion and Graham in his native state, and at the age of seventeen began learning the baker's trade with the Vir- ginia Confectionery Company at Graham. He remained there two years, and then entered the mercantile business for himself. He conducted this business successfully for about nine years, finally selling ont in 1911.

In was in 1912 that Mr. Cole bought the Bluefield Bakery, and since then has given his entire time and attention to developing the plant and business. He has installed auto- matic machinery throughout, and the plant now has a capacity of producing 3,000 loaves of bread per hour or 48,000 in a full day's run. The Bluefield Bakery was orig- inally started in 1900 by M. Stean, who was succeeded by Captain Barger and from him Mr. Cole bought the business. Mr. Cole married in 1905, at Graham, Virginia, Miss

Mary Holbrook, daughter of John and Marie Holbrook, natives of Virginia. Her father was one of the leading merchants and citizens of Graham. Mr. and Mrs. Cole had six children, William Paul, Elizabeth, Holbrook, Carlyle, Kenneth and William J., Jr. William J., Jr., died in 1920. Mr. Cole and family are members of the Lutheran Church. He is a Knight Templar and Royal Arch Mason and Shriner, a member of the United Commercial Travelers, the Chamber of Commerce, Rotary Club and the Bluefield Coun- try Club. He has been in business and earning his own way since he was seventeen, and all his prosperity has been gained by hard work and close adherence to the fundamental principles of sound business.

THURMAN ELROY VASS, M. D. A highly accomplished physician and surgeon at Bluefield, Doctor Vass enjoys a secure prestige in his profession. He possesses the person- ality and the ability that inspire confidence, and in addition to the good work he has done at Bluefield he has a record as a medical officer with the army, having served in home camps and abroad nearly two years.

Doctor Vass was born in Summers Connty, West Vir- ginia, January 27, 1889, son of Phillip Edward and Eliza (Green) Vass. His parents were born in Monroe County, West Virginia, and his father was a contractor and bnilder who did a great deal of construction work in MeDowell and Mercer counties and, in fact, all through the southern part of the state.

Doctor Vass attended the graded schools of McDowell County, graduated in the academic course from the Concord Normal School in Jannary, 1909, and for three years was in West Virginia University, the first year in the prepara- tory medical course and two years in the regular course. From there he entered the College of Physicians and Sur- geons at Baltimore, where he graduated M. D. in 1914. Doctor Vass practiced the first year at Princeton and then moved to Blnefield, where he was well established before the war came on. He is now a member of the staff and assist- ant surgeon of St. Luke's Hospital.

Almost as soon as America declared war against Germany he enlisted and was commissioned a first lieutenant in the Medical Reserve Corps. He spent five weeks in the Medical Officers' Training School at Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia, was then assigned to duty at General Hospital No. 14 at Fort Oglethorpe, a month later was sent to the Base Hospital at Camp Travis, Texas, remaining there three weeks, then one month at General Hospital No. 1 at Fort Sam Houston, Texas, and for three weeks was at Base Hospital at Camp MeClellan, Anniston, Alabama. Ordered for duty overseas, he spent six days at Camp Mills, New York, and October 7, 1918, sailed from Hoboken, landing at Liverpool, October 19th, crossed England and the Channel to La Havre, and was assigned to Rimaucourt Base Hos- pital Center, where he remained until January 5, 1919. From that date until January 25, 1919, he was at Base Hospital No. 13 at Limoges, and was then sent to Mehun to join the Third Ordnance Battalion as medical officer. February 8th this detachment moved up to San Loubes and thence to Geni Court, and from there to Bassen docks, where the command sailed for home, reaching port March 5, 1919, and proceeding to Camp Merritt. From there Captain Vass went to Camp Dix, where he received his honorable dis- charge May 9, 1919, and then returned to BInefield and resumed his private practice after an absence of practically two years.

While still doing dnty in France Doctor Vass was apprised of the death of his wife. He had married Miss Nena Beatrice Sell, of Charleston, West Virginia, in February, 1918, and she died a little more than a year later, on March 9, 1919. She was a daughter of L. A. Sell. Doctor Vass is a member of the Episcopal Church, a Royal Arch and Scottish Rite Mason and Shriner at Alzafar of San Antonio, Texas, a member of the County, State and American Medi- cal associations, and belongs to the American Legion and Kiwanis Club. While in college he was pitcher in the basc- ball team, and retains an active interest in all ontdoor sports.

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DUDLEY IRVING SMITH, of Huntington, has been a resi- dent of Cabell County from the time of his birth and is now one of the more venerable native sons residing in the vital county seat eity, whoso inception and upbuilding have been matters of familiarity to him. He was bora at Guyandotte, now a part of the City of Huntington, on the 29th of October, 1845, and is a son of Dudley D. Smith, who was born on a farm near Lowell, Washington County, Ohio, and who received excellent educational training for his day. Ile taught school in Ohio when a young man and finally, in company with P. S. Smith, came to what is now Cabell County, West Virginia, and the two established themselves in the general merchandise business in the Village of Guyan- dotte. Within a short time thereafter Dudley D. Smith married Eleanor Miller, of Lawrence County, Ohio. A man of superior intellectuality and sterling character, ho became an honored and influential figure in the community, and both he and his wife were earnest members of the Methodist Church. He was a stanch Union man during the Civil war, and his freely expressed views led to his becoming dialiked in the community, which was strongly Confederate in senti- ment, with the result that he found it expedient to return to Ohio, where he found more congenial surroundings. Later he returned to Guyandotte, and he was one of the few Union sympathizers not taken captive in the town when it was invaded by a band of Confederate soldiers, who later evacuated the place, when its capture by Union forces seemed imminent. The occupation by Union soldiers led to the burning of thirty-five houses at Guyandotte, and in this both Union and Confederate sympathizers suffered alike, the action having been taken, doubtless, more in reprisal than as a "military necessity" for which claim was made. Mr. Smith and his wife continued their residence in Cabell County until their deaths, and of their eight children only two are now living.

Dudley I. Smith, the third child, was attending what is now Marshall College when the unsettled conditions incident to the Civil war caused him to go to Washington County, Ohio, where he followed farm work in the summer season and attended school during the winter. After a year he returned to the parental home, hia father having at the time been conducting a small general store at Proctorville, Ohio. After a year or more of work on farms and in a brick yard Mr. Smith took a course in a business college at Cincinnati, Ohio, and thereafter he elerked a few months in a store at Gallipolis, that state. He next became clerk on a steamboat plying the Upper Ohio River, and thereafter he built and operated a wharf boat at Guyandotte, West Virginia. About a year later he sold this business and became asso- ciated with his father in mercantile pursuits at Guyandotte.

In 1870, as a democrat, Mr. Smith was elected sheriff of Cabell County, and after he had served two years of his four-year term a new election was called, by legislative enactment, and he was again elected for a full term of four years. He thus served six years, and it was within this period that the Younger-James band of desperadoes robbed the Bank of Huntington. After a strenuous pursuit one of the robbers, Budd MeDaniels, was killed, one, Clel Miller, captured, and the remaining two, Cole Younger and Frank James, escaped.

When the new Town of Huntington was founded its rapid growth attracted to the community all sorts of people, and as sheriff of the county Mr. Smith found ample call upon his attention in the suppression of lawlessness and crime. In the meanwhile he had retained his interest in the store at Guyandotte, and had also engaged in the buying and selling of land. After retiring from the office of sheriff he turned his attention especially to the real estate business, and of this line of enterprise he has continued a representative to the present time. In 1902 he was elected a member of the board of county commissioners, and by successive re-elec- tions he retained this position eighteen years, during the greater part of which he was president of the board. Upon the organization of the First National Bank of Huntington. Mr. Smith became one of its stockholders and direetors, and for many years past he has been vice president of this sub- stantial institution. He is a Royal Arch Mason and he and

his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.

In 1870 Mr. Smith we bled Miss Hannah C. Miller, and they have three children: Mayme C. (widow of Dr. A. T. Cherry), George Collord and Dudley Irvin.

ELBERT F. PETERS, M. D. Considering the energy und initiative displayed by Doctor Peters it is probable he would have made a success of nny vocation, yet his gifts led him naturally into medicine and surgery, and in this line his service has had a growing scope of benefit and usefulne . throughout the southern section of the state.

Doetor Peters, whose home is at Princeton, Mercer County, was born at Dunus Post Office in Summers County, West Virginia, January 10, 1575, son of Joseph and Mary Alice (Ellison) Peters. Hle is of Scotch-Irish ancestry, his father born in Virginia and his mother in West Vir ginia. Joseph Peters was a farmer, a teacher in his early life, and always kept in touch with educationnl affairs and publie matters in general. He knew Mercer County and the Mercer County people thoroughly, and when the county was revalued he was made assessor for the nasessment of all property, coal and timber lands in the county.

Elbert F. Peters acquired a common school education, attended the Normal college at Athens, and following that taught school four years. He took up the study of medi eine in the Maryland Medical College of Baltimore, gradlu- ating M. D. in 1902. Doctor Peters throughout his profes sional career has done a great deal of industrial practice. His first practice was in MeDowell County as physician and surgeon for the Pocahontas Consolidated Colleries Corpora tion, now the Pocahontas Fuel Company. Ile is still physi- eian and surgeon for this corporation, nnd supervises the medieal and aurgienl service for tive large coal operation". He maintains a main office at Maybeury in McDowell County, where he has complete operating room and four beds for emergency cases. There is a branch office at Switchback, where he has an assistant.

llis natural qualifications and the early success he achieved in his practice did not tend to quiet Doctor Petera' aggressive ambitions for the highest possible ut- tainment in his chosen career. He hns associated with many of the greatest men in surgery, and has kept in touch with the advancement of the science in various schools. Hle attended the New York Polyclinic in 1906, in 1908 spent six months at the University of Maryland at Baltimore, pur suing a general course in medicine and surgery; spent ses eral weeks in the Northwestern University at Chicago in 1911, six weeks in 1912 nt the New York Post Graduate School and Hospital, three months in 1916 in the same school, and during the World war he volunteered for active service, and while not ealled out, he has his certificate ns a volunteer.

Doctor Peters waa from September, 1919, to December. 1921, a member of the Memorial Hospital Corporation of Princeton, West Virginia. This is a private hospital for merly owned by Dr. C. C. Peters, Dr. G. L. Todd and Dr. E. F. Peters. Doetor Peters was one of the principal figures in the organization of this hospital and an netive member of the hospital staff.

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History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 2, Part 52

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