History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 2, Part 68

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In December, 1906, Mr. Burk came to Morgantown, West Virginia, to assume the position of auditor of the Morgan. town & Kingwood Railroad, and of this office he continued the ineumbent until this railrond line was sokl and be- eame a part of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad system, in 1920. Mr. Burk served simultaneously as auditor of the Elkins Coal & Coke Company and the West Virginia Mer- eantile Company until the business of the two corporations changed ownership in 1919. Hle is now conducting a sub- stantial and prosperous independent business as a public accountant, and is also, as previously noted, the vice presi- dent and auditor of the National Fuel Company of Morgan- tewn.

For several years prior to coming to West Virginia, while residing at Trenton and Philadelphia, Mr. Burk had done all of the final accounting or auditing work for the various corporations in which the late United States Sen- ators Elkins and Davis were interested, and this service had involved frequent trips inte West Virginia.

Mr. Burk is a member of Mercer Lodge No. 50, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and Three Times-Three Chapter, Royal Areh Masons, at Trenton, New Jersey, and in the Seottish Rite of the Masonie fraternity he has received the fourteenth degree. Ile is an active member of the Morgan- town Chamber of Commerce, the local Rotary Club and tho Morgantown Country Club. lle and his wife are zealous members of the First Presbyterian Church of Morgantown, and he is serving as an elder in the same.

July 1, 1897, recorded the marriage of Mr. Burk and Miss Mary Emma Johnsen, who was born in the City of Reading, Pennsylvania, a daughter of Irwin and Lydin Johnsen. Mr. and Mrs. Burk have three children: Helen Elizabeth, who was born at Trenton, New Jersey, July 8, 1900, is a member of the class of 1922 in the University of West Virginia; Tracy Johnson, who was born at Trea- ten, New Jersey, January 27, 1903, is, in 1921, a student in the Morgantown Shorthand Institute; and Robert Charles, whe was born in the City of Philadelphia, December 4, 1905, is a student in the Morgantown High School.

WILLIAM LEROY BOUGIINER was a lad of seven years at the time when the family home was established at Morgan- town, Menongalia County, where he was reared and edu- cated and where he had the distinction of being a member of the third elass to be graduated in the newly established University of West Virginia. In this city he now resides. gives a general supervision te his landed interests in this state, devotes considerable attention to the real estate busi- ness and is the ineumbent of the office of justice of the peace. Of the family history adequate record is given on other pages of this work, in the memoir dedicated to the late Dr. James Vance Boughner, father of him whose namo in- itistes this sketeh.

William L. Boughner was born at Mount Morris, Greene County, Pennsylvania, on the 31st of May, 1852. After the removal of the family to Morgantown he here attended the old Morgantown Academy, the nucleus of the present University of West Virginia. As previously stated. he was n member of the third elass graduated in the university, that of 1873, and received the degree of Bachelor of Ser- enee. Among his classmates were Dr. D. B. Purint n, now

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president emeritus of the University of West Virginia, and Hon. John T. Harris, of Charleston, who is one of the advisory editors of this history. After leaving the uni- versity Mr. Boughner read law under the preceptorship of the late Judge W. T. Willey of Morgantown, and though he was admitted to the bar in 1874, he has never engaged actively in the practice of law.

For two years Mr. Boughner was engaged in the lumber business in Preston County, and he then assumed active management of the large farm of his widowed mother, on which are established the present Fair Grounds of Marion County. He remained on the farm until 1904, when he returned to Morgantown, primarily for the purpose of giv- ing his children the educational advantages here afforded, and in 1908 he was elected justice of the peace, of which judicial office he has since continued in tenure. In con- nection with his real estate operations Mr. Boughner re- cently sold to the Masons of Morgantown the lot at the head of High Street, adjoining the Masonic Temple, this property having been owned jointly by him and his sister.

In 1898, when the republicans of West Virginia scored a great victory in electing their candidates for the Legis- lature, Mr. Boughner was appointed and served for ten years as assistant clerk of the State Senate, to which posi- tion he was appointed by his old university classmate, Hon. John T. Harris, who had been elected clerk of the Senate. He has continued a loyal and vigorous supporter of the cause of the republican party, is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and his wife holds membership in the Presbyterian Church.

Mr. Boughner married Miss Jane Delawder, daughter of Gustave Delawder, of the State of Maryland, and of this union have been born one son and three daughters: Martha Louisa died as Mrs. Herbert S. Payne; Jennie D. is as- sistant librarian at the University of West Virginia, in which institution she was graduated; May is the wife of Prof. B. Walter King, a member of the faculty of that university; and J. Vance (II) is engaged in newspaper work in the City of Wheeling.

WILLIAM S. FOOSE. Among West Virginia insurance men few have continued their effort of consecutive activities so long as William S. Foose of Wheeling, who has been identi- fied with this essential business for practically half a cen- tury, and is still head of the firm W. S. Foose & Company, one of the strongest general insurance organizations in the Upper Ohio Valley.

Mr. Foose was born at Wheeling June 24, 1844. 1lis parents, John Adam Foose and Margaret Fisher, were natives of Hesse, Germany, born in the same year, 1809, and they came to this country on the same boat, landing at Baltimore, and soon afterward came on to Wheeling and were married in the old Grant House of that city. The father of Margaret Fisher was Martin Fisher, who was born in Germany in 1772. He spent practically all his life as a German farmer, and when well advanced in years came to the United States, in 1852, and died within twenty-four hours after reaching Wheeling. John Adam Foose was a tailor by trade, and for many years was active in business as a merchant tailor at Wheeling, where he died in 1861. He was independent in politics, a member of the Catholic Church, and belonged to the German Benevolent Association. His wife survived him ten years, passing away in 1871. Of their children two, a son and daughter, died in infancy, and the five to grow up were: John P., who was a Union soldier in the Civil war, is now eighty-four years of age and holds the nominal title of assistant superintendent of the Soldiers Home at Dayton, Ohio. Adam was a tailor's cutter and died at Louisville, Kentucky. William S. is the third. Joseph P. was a dry goods clerk and died at Wheeling at the age of sixty. Mary, who died at Wheeling, was the wife of the late Richard Green, who was connected with the Co-operative Stove Company of Wheeling.

William S. Foose lived at Wheeling in the years before the war, finished his education in St. Joseph's Cathedral School, and left school at the age of sixteen. For six years he was an employe of his father, and during that time learned the trade of tailor's cutter. For a year and a half

he was employed by the dry goods firm of Rouse & Stoner, and for three years, from 1871 to 1874, was deputy to Sheriff Richard Brown.

On leaving the sheriff's office Mr. Foose became assistant secretary of the German Insurance Company. It was with this organization that he gained his detailed and technical knowledge of the insurance business. He served ten years as assistant secretary and then for three years more was secretary of the company. When he resigned he engaged in the general insurance business for himself in 1887. For two years his partner was Alfred Paull, though the business title of the firm was Foose & Company. After that Mr. Foose continued the business alone until his son Raymond A. joined him as partner in 1903, and the firm is now W. S. Foose & Company, with offices at 1219 Chapline Street.

Mr. Foose is independent in politics. He was a member of the first Board of Equalization and Appeals of Ohio County, and performed the responsibilities of that office for four years. Church and benevolent organizations have found in him an interested and liberal co-worker. He is a member of the Catholic Church, was formerly affiliated with Carroll Council No. 504, Knights of Columbus, and for the past thirty-five years has been a member of St. Vincent de Paul's Charitable Organization and is presi- dent of the Particular Council of this body. He is also a member of the Wheeling Chamber of Commerce. W. S. Foose in 1890 took the lead in organizing the West Vir- ginia Fire Insurance Agents Association, and served as first president of the association for seven years and is still an honored member.

In 1878, at Wheeling, he married Miss Catherine Grub- ler, who was born at Wheeling in 1859. Mr. and Mrs. Foose are the parents of seven children: Loretta, wife of J. D. Corcoran, living at Cleveland; Bertha, wife of John A. Hack, assistant general yard master for the Balti- more & Ohio Railway, living at Cleveland; Adrian F., super- intendent of construction for the Crowell-Little Construction Company, with home at Cleveland; Raymond A., partner of W. S. Foose & Company; Ida, who died at the age of twelve years; Miss Irene Zita, at home; and Robert J., a civil engineer with home at Barnesville, Ohio.

Raymond A. Foose was born at Wheeling, July 5, 1886. He was educated in the parochial schools, in the Cathedral High School, and at the age of sixteen launched himself on the sca of practical affairs. For a year he was en- gaged in civil engineering work, but in 1903 he became associated with his father as a partner in W. S. Foose & Company, and as a salesman has found a satisfying voca- tion and an opportunity for the exercise of his best talents. Mr. Foose is an independent in politics, is a member of the Catholic Church, is a former member of Carroll Council No. 504, Knights of Columbus, and belongs to the Wheel- ing Chamber of Commerce.

In 1911, at Wheeling he married Miss Mabel F. Tomlin- son, daughter of Joseph and Estella (Waters) Tomlinson, the latter still living at Wheeling. Her father was a farmer and died at Wheeling. Mrs. Foose is a graduate of the Wheeling High School. They have two children: Raymond, Jr., born December 21, 1913, and Richard Tomlin- son, born May 19, 1920.

WILLIAM S. DANGERFIELD is a very able and successful lawyer of Princeton, and has gained prominence in the affairs of his city and eounty, not through politics, the usual avenne of advancement, but through practical business, and he is a banker and associated with several of the strong business organizations of his section of the state.

Mr. Dangerfield was born on a farm about four miles from Princeton, October 13, 1877, son of R. C. and Susan E. (Carr) Dangerfield. He is of Scotch-Irish ancestry, and his people have been in Virginia and West Virginia for several generations. His father was born in this state and his mother in old Virginia. R. C. Dangerfield followed the business of tanner, and was very active in all public affairs, holding such offices as justice of the peace, county commis- sioner, sheriff of the county and member of the Board of Education.

William S. Dangerfield attended the common schools of

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iaceton, also the high school, graduated from the Prince- Academy in 1897, and in 1901 received hia A. B. degreo om Emory and Heary College in Virginia. For one year was principal of the Jonesville Academy at Jonesville, rginia. Mr. Dangerfield began the atudy of law under n. Edgar P. Rucker, remaining ia his office a year. Ho en entered the law department of the University of West rginia, at Morgantown, graduating LL. B. in 1904. Since en he has been in practice at Princeton, and is one of the ost successful business lawyers in the county. He is a ember of the County and West Virginia Bar associations. itside of his profession, Mr. Dangerfield has been presi- nt of the Virginiaa Bank of Commerce at Princeton since 18. The bank was organized in 1911. He is also presi- nt of the Allegany Insurance Agency, president of the thens Power Company, president of the Reid Laad and aprovement Company and a director in aeveral corpora- ons.

Mr. Dangerfield believes that the Sunday school is one of e greatest agencies for good in a community. He has been perintendent of the Sunday school of the Methodist piscopal Church, South, in Princeton, since 1904, and is so one of the trustees of the church. In 1909, at Staunton, irginia, Mr. Dangerfield married Miss Hattie E. Kennedy.

RILEY VARNEY, the efficient county clerk of Mingo ounty, is one of the popular citizens of his native county id its judicial center, the City of Williamson. He waa orn at Varney, on Pigeon Creek, this county, January 8, 392, and is a son of Andrew and Dillie (Spaulding) Var- y. Andrew Varney was born on the same old homestead I was his son, the locality having received its name in nor of this sterling pioneer family. Andrew is a son of ames C. Varney, who still remains on the old homestead, one of the most venerable of the native sons of Mingo punty, he being nearly ninety years of age at the time : this writing, in 1922, and two of his brothers likewise ing of patriarchal age,-Alois being eighty-seven and lexander, ninety-three years old. Samuel, another brother, ed at the age of seventy years, and of the aisters, Chloe ad Sarah Ann are living and Matilda is deceased. The arney family has been established in the Pigeon Creek istriet of Mingo County since about 1840, its first repre- atative having there been granted a large body of land.

James C. Varney, long a representative farmer of Mingo punty, was a soldier of the Confederacy during the entire period of the Civil war. Andrew Varney, now fifty-one ears of age, is actively identified with coal mining. His ife was likewise born on Pigeon Creek, this county, a mughter of Jacob Spaulding, who came here from Peach rehard, Martin County, Kentucky. Andrew Varney has en identified with coal mining operations for twenty-two ars, and is now thus engaged at Norton, Virginia. Both and his wife have membership in the Methodist Episcopal hurch, South, of which his father has long been a member id a trustee, besides having served as school trustec.

From his boyhood, Riley Varney was reared in the home f his paternal grandfather, and the discipline of the local hool was supplanted by his attending the high school at ockhouse and thereafter continuing his studies three years the Virginia State Normal School at Ripley. At the age E seventeen years he became a teacher in the rural schools { Mingo County, and by his pedagogie service he defrayed le expense of his course in the normal school. He taught is last term of school in Taylor District, near his old home, : 1915. In the meanwhile he had been employed in the ine and the general store of the Red Jacket Coal Com- any, and for one year he had charge of the company'a ore at Red Jacket, Jr. In 1914 he was the democratic indidate for county superintendent of schools and was efeated by only 118 votes, he having led his party ticket i the county by 300 votes and hia defeat having really een compassed by the theft of the ballot box in Rockhouse recinct. In 1920 Mr. Varney was elected county clerk, his assumption of office taking place January 1, 1921. In this ection his opponent was the man who had defeated him or the office of county superintendent of sehoola in 1914, nd his victory was compassed by a majority of 779 votes.

Mr. Varney is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and he and his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.

The year 1912 recorded the marriage of Mr. Varney anl Miss Katharine Evans, who was lorn at ('urter urg, thi state, a daughter of Harry Lvan. Mr. and Mrs. Varney have five children, whose names anl respective ag (1922) are here recorded: Clinton, nine; Jam & C., Jr., Even; Donald, five; Reed, three; and Virginia, on .

LUTHER A. DUNN. The rapid rise of Bluefie J to a city of commanding importance in the industrial and omner in world is due to men as well as to favorable location all great material resources. One of these citizens who have had a share and exerted nn important influence in this d . velopment is Luther A. Dunn, whose first working relation ship with the community was baggage handler for the Nor folk & Western. Mr. Dunn has since been actively ident fiedl with a number of enterprises and is secretary, treas rer and general manager of the Standard Fuel & Supply Com pany.

He was born in Giles County, Virginia, June 5, 1865, son of John Harvey and Sarah Lenh ( Hale) Dunn, the Harveys being of Irish and the Hales of English ancestry. One of the Hales served as a soldier in the war for independence, taking part in the North Carolina campaign, and after the war settled in Giles County. John Harvey Dunn was a native of Giles County and before the Civil war he and a partner were doing a satisfactory merchandise bus ne . When he left to go into the Confederate army his partner took the proceeds of the store and decamped to Kansas. Mrs. Dunn fortunately had some money of her own, which she used to settle the debts of the firm and after the war the family moved to a small farm in Monroe County, West Virginia. On this farm the parents spent the rest of their days, John H. Dunn dying in 1858 at the age of fifty, the widowed mother surviving until 1916, being then seventy- seven years of age. John H. Dunn was in the Confederate army in Clark's Battalion of Sharpshooters and later in the Twenty-second Virginia Regiment. lle was a corporal and then a lieutenant, and was a participant in the campaigns under General Early. Hc and his wife were both Bap tists.

Luther A. Dunn was reared from childhood in Monroe County, West Virginia, where he attended the common schoola. For four years he was a teacher and then for five years he was a traveling representative of the Frank n Davia Nursery Company of Richmond, Virginia.

On coming to Bluefield he handled the baggage and ex- press on the Norfolk & Weatern Railroad for three years. He was then promoted to local ticket agent, and held that office for seven years. In the meantime, he and O. C. Jen- kins, the Norfolk & Western freight agent, became a. o- ciated with their capital and enterprise in hand ing several commercial undertakings. They have been n-ociate l ever since. The firm of Jenkins & Dunn began selling conl at 10 Hoge Street, being local distributors for the Corner, Curran & Bullitt product. Later they incorporated the Standar I Fuel & Supply Company and have enlarged the scope of their business to the handling of building material and fre s as well as coal. Their present offices and warchous q w re built in 1917. Mr. Dunn and his partner deve oped the Orinoko Coal Mine on Pond Creek in Pike County Kon- tucky, but later sold that. They also developed the pror- erties of the Fall Branch Coal Company, and are still oper. ating these minea.

In August, 1908, Mr. Duna married Mrs. Fla Jennifer. Their four children are Luther A., Jr., Frank J., El nd Lee and Leah Hale. Mrs. Dunn is a member of the Ffi o pal Church. Mr. Dunn is an ind pendent dem rat, and is affiliated with the Elks.

HARRY M. WAUGH brings to bear excellent t hni al and practical experience in his operations as a railroad contrac- tor, and he is actively engaged in rai road e str ti n contracting, with the best of modern mechanical f ihti s. He has maintained his residence and butine's headquarters in the City of Bluefield, Mercer County, since 1918.

Mr. Waugh was born in Orange County, Virgin'a, on the

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22d of January, 1885, and is a son of Goree Edward Waugh and Cora Lee (Jones) Waugh. The father was for many years ons of the prominent and successful railroad con- tractors of the country, and had active part in railway construction in all parts of the Union, besides having been a contractor in connection with the building of the great drainage canal of the City of Chicago. He was born and reared in Virginia and became identified with contracting enterprise when he was a youth of eighteen years. He has lived virtually retired since 1908. He has extensive and valuable farm property in Virginia and takes special delight in the breeding and raising of fine live stock. Aside from his farm properties he has other important commercial and financial interests. He still resides at Orange, Virginia, and is there vice president of the Citizens National Bank. He has taken loyal interest in public affairs in his home com- munity, is a stanch democrat and is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity. His first wife died in 1892, and Harry M., of this review, is the only child of this union.

Harry M. attended the public schools of the various places where his father was temporarily located in connection with contracting work, and after his graduation from high school he completed the curriculum of and graduated from Locust Dale Military Academy in his native state, later having graduated from a business college at Richmond, Virginia. After leaving schools he gained broad and valuable ex- perience through active association with his father's con- tracting business, and after the father retired from active alliance with this important line of enterprise the son con- tinued in the same and has well upheld the prestige of the family name. He is one of the vital and progressive young business men and loyal citizens of Bluefield, and here he served in 1920 as a director of the Chamber of Commerce, besides which he is an active member also of the local Rotary Club. He and his wife are zealous members of the Bland Street Methodist Church, in which he is serving as a steward.

On the 1st of June, 1912, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Waugh and Miss Gertrude Sleadd, of Shelbyville, Kentucky, and they have four gons: Harry M., Jr., Edgar Sleadd, Goree E. and Philip.

LOUIS E. SCHRADER. Almost an entire generation of the bar of the West Virginia Panhandle have come to know and appreciate the services of Louis E. Schrader, the of- ficial court reporter at Wheeling. He is also widely known over the state, since for many years he has. been the of- ficial reporter of the State Senate.

Mr. Schrader was born at Wheeling, April 5, 1869. His father, Charles F. W. Schrader, was born in Germany in 1838, and as a youth learned the carriage maker's trade. About the time he completed his apprenticeship he came to the United States, located at Wheeling, and was one of the skilled men of his trade and active in business in that city for many years. He died at Wheeling in 1886. He was a democrat and a member of the Lutheran Church. His wife, Christiana Stifel, was born in Wheeling in 1849, and died in that city in 1909.

Louis E. Schrader, only child of his parents, was edu- cated in Wheeling's public schools to the age of fourteen. His early training both in the law and in stenography was acquired while in the law offices of Russell & Stifel, a prom- inent law firm with which he remained five years. He later continued his shorthand studies at the Cincinnati School of Phonography and the Phonographic Institute of Cin- cinnati. The proficiency he developed took him into the profession of court reporting, and he has been in that line of work continuously for nearly thirty years and has been official court reporter for Ohio County since 1893. His offices are in the Court House at Wheeling. For twenty years he has been official reporter of the West Virginia Senate. Mr. Schrader is now serving a term as member of the City Board of Education. He is a republican, a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, belongs to the Rotary Club and is affiliated with Wheeling Lodge No. 28, B. P. O. E.

In 1908, at Wheeling, he married Miss Alberta Prince, daughter of William and Isabelle (Close) Prince, now de-

ceased. Her father was a steamboat captain on the Ohi River. Mr. and Mrs. Schrader have ons son, Henry, bor in 1909.

GEORGE NATHANIEL HANCOCK is a well known Charlesto business man, whose ripe business qualifications are in : sense the product of long experience and discipline i railroading. He first came to Charleston as city agen for the Chesapeake & Ohio, and since leaving that serv ice has been a coal, oil and gas operator and is prc moter of the Mohler Addition to Charleston.

Mr. Hancock was born in Carolina County, Virginia in 1867, son of William J. Hancock, who married a dis tant cousin, Margaret A. Hancock. William J. Hancock a native of Louisa County, Virginia, and for years a educator in Kentucky, served as an officer in Long street's Corps in the Confederate army through the way His grandfather, Austin Hancock, served in the Revolu tionary war. In 1873 W. J. Hancock moved with hi family to Alderson, Monroe County, West Virginia. where he died in July, 1919, at the venerable age o eighty-six.

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History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 2, Part 68

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