History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 2, Part 78

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One of the charter members of the institution, and the secretary and treasurer, is Charles R. Windsor. Mr. Windsor was born in Brooke County, on a farm that ia now included in the site of the town of Windsor, in cluding the great electric power plant. His father. Joshua R. Windsor, was born on the same farm, and the grand- father was T. T. Windsor, one of the pioneers of that section. Joshua Windsor died at the age of seventy-four. He had spent his life as a farmer and merchant. The mother of Charles R. Windsor was Mary J. Williams, who was also born in Brooke County, and died when in middle life.

Charles R. Windsor acquired a common-school education and attended a business college. In 1992 he entered the service of the old Bank of Wellsburg, and about ten years later took part in the reorganization of that bank. IIe

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is also a director in the George-Sherrard Paper Company of Wellsburg. Mr. Windsor, who is unmarried, is a re- publican in politics, is a trustee of the local lodge of Masons, and is affiliated with West Virginia Consistory No. 1 of the Scottish Rite.

JOHN C. GILMOUR is one of the prominent men in the coal industry of Logan County, and from his progressive rec- ord so far his many friends are justified in predicting for him a splendid future. He is mine superintendent at Chaun- cey on the Chesapeake and Ohio, about eight miles from Logan and a mile and a half from Omar Post Office.

Mr. Gilmour was born in Scotland May 5, 1886, son of John C. and Harriett (Hutton) Gilmour, also natives of Scotland. His father was an experienced coal miner in the old country, and made his first visit to the United States in 1884. Subsequently he secured properties and became an operator in the New River Coal District in 1902. He was one of the pioneers in developing the Cabin Creek coal field, opening the Cherokee Coal Company's property at Lce- wood in that district. For many years he was one of the leading operators in this section.

John C. Gilmour, Jr., acquired a common school educa- tion in West Virginia, his mother coming with him to this country when he was an infant. He also attended city schools and spent two years in Marshall College at Hunt- ington, and in 1904 completed a commercial and bookkeep- ing course in the Sadlers Bryant and Stratton Business College at Baltimore. From 1904 to 1910 his work was bookkeeping and store employment. In 1910 he became superintendent at Quincy, West Virginia, for the Quincy Coal Company, remaining there two years, for one year was superintendent for the Hughes Creek Coal Company, and for fifteen months was with the Virginia Coal Company at Coal Fork, West Virginia. Then followed an interval of seventeen months when he was out of the coal industry and was business manager and auditor for Sheltering Arms Hospital at Hanford, West Virginia.

On September 6, 1916, he began his duties at Chauncey, as superintendent of mines for the Litz-Smith Island Creek Coal Company. He offered his services to the Government during the World war, but he was told that he could do the best possible work by remaining at the mines and keeping up coal production.

In 1913, at Charleston, he married Miss Irene Johnson, daughter of J. W. and Annie (Harris) Johnson, both West Virginia people. Her father is connected with the Trans- fer Company at Logan. Mr. and Mrs. Gilmour have one son, William C. Mr. Gilmour is a-Royal Arch Mason, also a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason and Shriner.

JAMES B. AGEE is a prominent young coal man of Logan County, with home at Logan. He is superintendent of the Shamrock Coal Company, whose operations are at the coal village of Shamrock. This is one of the mine properties of the Litz-Smith Coal Company.

Mr. Agee was born at Jacksboro, Tennessee, Feb- ruary 24, 1887, son of James W. and Lassie (Hollings- worth) Agee, also natives of Tennessee. His father for a time was in the railroad service, and for three years had charge of the station at Logan for the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway. Otherwise practically his entire active life was spent in some county office in Campbell County, Tennessee, where he was sheriff and also clerk of the Chancery Court. James B. Agee secured a com- mon school education at LaFollette, Tennessee, and at the age of seventeen began work as clerk in a local store, and some three years later came to West Vir- ginia, in 1907, and became clerk in the commissary for the Turkey Gap Coal and Coke Company. He was there about three years, and then came to Shamrock as store manager and pay roll clerk for the Litz-Smith Com- pany, owners of the Shamrock Mine. For one year he was still manager and pay-roll clerk, and since then has been superintendent of the mines. During the World war it is literally true that Mr. Agee worked night and day in order to stimulate increased production of coal.

In December, 1910, at Delorme, West Virginia, he married Miss Lena A. Fletcher, daughter of James H. and Media Fletcher, natives of Kentucky. Her father has been a railroad trainman during his active life. The three children of Mr. and Mrs. Agee are Arnold B., Raymond H. and Doris Ruth. The family are mem-1 bers of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Mr. Agee is an Elk, and in Masonry is a member of the Royal Arch Chapter and the Knight Templar Commandery, the Mystic Shrine, and recently has completed the route of the Lodge of Perfection.

LONZO EDWARDS STEELE, M. D., is established in the ac- tive general practice of his profession at Logan, judi- cial center of the West Virginia County of the same name, where for the past ten years he has had a heavy professional practice in connection with leading coar mining corporations in this section. He was also one of the founders of the admirably equipped Logan Hospital which has proved of inestimable value in providing proper hospital facilities in connection with mining operations.

Doctor Steele was born on a farm east of Williamson. Mingo County, on Tug River, June 2, 1880, Mingo County at that time having been still a part of Logan County. He is a son of Harrison and Nancy (Hatfield) Steele. the father having been a successful farmer and also identified with the timber industry in this section of the state, and his father, John Steele, having been a loyal soldier of the Confederacy in the Civil war. Valen. tine Hatfield, maternal grandfather of Doctor Steele, likewise gave valiant service as a soldier in the war between the states. Doctor Steele has one brother and one sister: S. E. is a farmer on Tug River, and Eliza is the wife of Scott Browning, a merchant at Meador.

Doctor Steele is indebted to the public schools for his early education, and at the age of seventeen years he became a teacher in a rural district in Mingo County He continued teaching four years, and in the meanwhile substantially advanced his own education through the medium of private study and attending select school during the summer vacations. In 1900 he entered the medical department of the University of Nashville, Ten nessee, and in this institution he was graduated in 1904 with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. For a year thereafter he served as an interne in the City Hospital of Nash, Kentucky, and thus fortified himself further by valuable clinical experience. He has since taker effective post-graduate courses in the Hospital College at Louisville, the celebrated New York Polyclinic, al well as in the New York Post-Graduate Medical Col lege. He has availed himself also of the clinics of the great Mayo Brothers Hospital at Rochester, Minnesota and those of leading hospitals in the City of Chicago.

In 1906 Doctor Steele established himself in practic at Holden, Logan County, as physician and surgeon fo the United States Coal & Oil Company, now known a the Island Creek Coal Company. In the same year h established his residence and professional headquarter at Logan, the county seat, where he has since continuer his able and loyal service as a skilled physician and sur geon. In 1915 he became associated with Doctor Far ley in rebuilding and thoroughly modernizing the Logar Hospital, which they have since conducted with unquali fied success. Doctor Steele is identified with the Loga! County Medical Society, the West Virginia State Med ical Society and the American Medical Association, an in the Masonic fraternity he has received the thirty second degree of the Scottish Rite.

JAMES DIX TURNER, M. D. The duties of a physicia: and surgeon have engaged Doctor Turner at Chapman ville in Logan County for over twenty years. He lo cated there in advance of the first railroad, and ha been one of the most useful members of the community

Doctor Turner comes from a notable family of pro fessional people. He was born at Matville, Raleig! County, West Virginia, August 2, 1874, son of Willian

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Martha (Ilinchman) Turner. His grandfather was in B. Turner, who brought his family from Patrick anty, Virginia, to Raleigh County in 1837. John B. rner lived to the advanced age of ninety-seven.

Villiam Turner was born in Patrick County, Virginia, uary 17, 1841, while his wife was born in Logan inty, April 11, 1848. Their home is now in Washing- , D. C. The father is past four seore and the mother irly seventy-five, and every one of their nine children iving. William Turner was bitterly opposed to seees a and entered the Union Army and served loyally r years. He was captain of his company, and unded at the battle of Cross Keys. lle has always 'n a republican. In a business way his active life e spent as a farmer and lumberman, as trader and veyor, and he also participated in the eval develop- nt in his section of the state, where he owned a large cage of land. He sold these interests in 1901 and loved to Barboursville, and since 1911 his home has 'n in Washington. He has been a local minister of Methodist Episcopal Church, and is affiliated with Masonic Order and Independent Order of Odd Fel- s. Among the children one daughter, May, is a phy- ian, and had charge of a Red Cross Hospital in the Ikans, married an English colonel, and she is now in astantinople. She is a graduate of George Wash- ton University. John Roscoe Turner, one of the s, has gained distinction as an educator and authority political economy, was formerly connected with Cor- 1 University and is now Professor of Economies in w York University. Another son, W. Wirt. is an truetor of architecture at Notre Dame University in liana, and is a graduate of the University of Wash- ton.

James Dix Turner had an experience as a teacher fore he completed his medieal studies. Ile attended Concord State Normal School at Athens, and taught lee terms of school in Raleigh County and one term Logan County. In 1896 he entered the University dieal College of Richmond, and he graduated in 1900 m the University of South, Sewanee, Tennessee. ree different times since beginning practice he has ken work in the Philadelphia Polyelinie. Doctor Tur- ; practiced at Marshfork in Raleigh County until 01, when he moved to Chapmanville. That was two ars before the railroad was completed, and he was a Iroad physician while the line was being constructed in Midkift to Logan. Since then his energies have en taken up by a general practice.

Doetor Turner in 1901 married Vivian Barrett, daugh- of R. E. Barrett, of Dry Creek, West Virginia. Their ldren are: William E., Thomas Pierce, James Dix, , Fay, Joseph Bruce, Lneile and Charmion. Doetor rner is affiliated with the Knights of Pythias, has en twice in the Grand Lodge of the Independent der of Odd Fellows, and is a member of the Knights the Golden Eagle. He is a republican.

GLENNING D. SIMERAL is one of Wheeling's young and erprising business men and is proprietor of the Owl int Shop, the largest job printing and commercial print- ¿ establishment not an auxiliary of a newspaper plant the Wheeling District.

Mr. Simeral was born at Beallsville, Ohio, February 21, 37. Beallsville is in Monroe County, Ohio, and in that tion of the state the Simerals settled in pioneer times, ving from Pennsylvania. Mr. Simeral's grandfather, hn Jackson Simeral, spent all his life at Beallsville, ere he was born in 1832 and died in 1902. For many jars he was connected with H. Miller & Company, to- cco merchants. He was a member of the Methodist Fiscopal Church. John J. Simeral married Lucretia Owens, To was born in Maryland in 1834, and died at Wheeling 1914. They had seven children. One of them was John labury Simeral, who for a number of years owned and erated the Palace Hotel at Decatur, Illinois, and died at Fronto, Canada, at the age of sixty-seven. His sister, ice, is now living at Oberlin, Ohio, the widow of John

Jeffers, who was connected with the sales department of the American Agricultural Chemical Company at Cleveland

Ilamilton (. Simeral, father of Glenn D., was born at Beallsville in 1561, was rearel there and became a gen eral merchant, and in 1907 moved to Whechog, where he was nasociated for several years with the W. A. Pricherst Company, retail merchants. He died at Wheeling in 191s Hle was a democrat, always interested in lo al pohti s. especially at Beallsy lle. though not an office acker for himself. He was a dearon and for many year an active member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and fraternnily was affiliated with the Masons and Odd Fellows. Haniltop 0). Simeral married Rosella Potts, now living at German town, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She was born near Sim merfiehl, Ohio, in 1664, and was reared at Atlanta, Illinois, where she was married. She is a niere of the late John B. Driggs judge of the Circuit Court and a very highly respected citizen of Eastern Ohio. Of her children Glenn D. is the oldest. Ella Mae is the wife of Glenn O. DuRois. manager of the Zanesville, Ohio, office of the Bradstreet Company; Wilfred H. is a student in the Wheeling High School.

Glenn D. Simeral graduated from the Reallyville High School in 1905, was a student one year in Oberlin ('ol lege in Ohio, and was twenty years of age when he he. companied his parents to Wheeling. Here for three years he was connected with Edward Wagner, a wholesale grocer and then for four years was with the Joseph Speidel Gro very Company. After this general training in business Mr. Simeral organized the company and established the Owl Print Shop, and is now sole proprietor of that pros- ferous business at 917 Market Street. The shop has all the facilities for expert and high class typographical work and does a general job printing business. Mr. Simeral is also exclusive agent in the Panhandle of West Virginia and Eastern Ohio for Art Metal Steel Office Equipments.

Mr. Simeral is a democrat and is a member of the Thom son Methodist Episcopal Church on Wheeling Island. Ile is affiliated with Wheeling Lodge No. 5. A. F. and A. M., has attained the eighteenth degree in West Virginia Con- sistory No. 1 of the Scottish Rite, and is a member of Wheeling Lodge, Knights of Pythias, and Welcome Lodge, Ancient Order United Workmen. Ile is a member of the Wheeling Rotary Club and Wheeling Chamber of Com- merer, and is a stockholder in the Community Savings & Loan Company in Wheeling.

September 6, 1915, Mr. Simeral joined the colors, be'ng sent to Camp A. A. Humphries in Virginia, where he was assigned to duty as a clerk in the personnel office of the Receiving Station, and continued there until mustered out January 1s. 1919. October 6, 1917. Mr. Simeral married at Wheeling. Miss Ethyl Cooper Montgomery, daughter of George and Mary Elizabeth ( Ridgely) Montgomery. Her father, a merchant, died at Wheeling. The mother, who 1" still living at Wheeling, represents the old Colonial family of Ridgelys, who for several generations lived in OM Vir- ginia. Mr. and Mrs. Simeral have one daughter, Mhry Elizabeth. horn July 31, 1921.

C. McDONALD ENGLAND. The development of trade and commerce throughout the Guyan Valley is part and par eel of the experience and life work of t'. MeDonall England. In earlier years he traveled over the valley selling goods to the retail merchants, and has been established at Logan since the first line of ra lw.v reached that town. The institution with which m « of his business history is concerned is the Logan Hard- ware & Supply Company, of which he is vice president. treasurer and manager.

Mr. England has been active manager since the or ganization of the company in 1904. For a number of years the company did a wholesale and retail business in several lines, but in recent years for a more efficient handling of the business two subsidiary companies have been formed. In 1919 the W. F. Bevill & Company was organized to take over the retail hardware business of the older company. Another subsidiary, established July 1, 1922, is the Logan Wholesale Furniture Company.

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The president of the Logan Hardware & Supply Com- pany is J. W. Ruff of Bluefield, and C. W. Beckner is secretary.

Mr. England was born at Covington in Alleghany County, Virginia, March 19, 1882, a son of Dr. J. R. and Anna (McAllister) England. His mother was born at Covington, where she is still living. Dr. J. R. Eng- land, was born in Carroll County, Maryland, in 1842, served as a Confederate soldier in a regiment organized in West Virginia, and after the Civil war he studied medicine in Baltimore. He practiced in Alleghany and Bath counties, Virginia, in Greenbrier and Monroe coun- ties, West Virginia, and was engaged in the arduous dnties of his profession for a number of years. The last twenty-five years of his life he was retired from prac- tice and lived on his farm at Covington, where he died in 1912. He was an elder in the Presbyterian Church, was a Master Mason and a democrat. Doctor Eugland and wife had a family of four sons and three daughters.

C. McDonald England graduated from the Covington High School at the age of nineteen, and soon afterward he located at Bluefield, West Virginia, where he began his career in the hardware business as an employe of the Bluefield Hardware Company. He remained with that concern for three years, making acquaintances that proved valuable to the early progress of the Logan Hard- ware and Supply Company when he helped organize that industry, about the time the railroad was built to Logan. Mr. England is also vice president of the First National Bank of Logan.

He is a public spirited citizen, has served several terms on the City Council, has been president of the Chamber of Commerce, is past master of Aracoma Lodge No. 99, A. F. and A. M., high priest of Logan Chapter, R. A. M., a member of Charleston Commandery No. 4, K. P., has taken the Scottish Rite degrees in Hunting- ton and in the Wheeling Consistory, and is a member of the Beni-Kedem Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Charleston. He is president of the Rotary Club of Logan.

In 1910 Mr. England married Miss Alma H. Hines, daughter of J. W. and Emma Hines. She was born at Danville Virginia. They have three children: Kathryne McAllister, Anne Elizabeth and C. McDonald, Jr. Mr. and Mrs. England are members of the Presbyterian Church and, like his father, he holds the post of elder in that church. In politics he is a democrat.

HARRY S. GAY, JR. Some of the most extensive opera- tions in the Logan County field are conducted by the Gay Coal & Coke Company, whose headquarters are known as Mount Gay, near Logan. The active manager of this industry for several years has been Harry S. Gay, Jr., himself a mining engineer with a successful experience in all the technical phases of coal mining. here and elsewhere. The company is in an important degree a result of the cumulative efforts and enterprise of three generations of this family.

The founder of the family in America was Samuel Gay, grandfather of Henry S. Gay. He was born in England, and from an early age worked in the coal fields of his native country. Coming to America, he became a miner in the anthracite fields of Pennsyl- vania. In the early days of the coal development in Southern West Virginia he was attracted to this field with William MeQuail. For a time they condneted op- erations under the name of the Turkey Gay Coal Com- pany in the Pocahontas District. Samuel Gay, served as mine inspector of the Eighth Anthracite Distriet for fifteen years, holding this position until the time of his death. Finally he returned to Pennsylvania. He pos- sessed the physical strength of an English coal miner, was a man of resolute will, had little education himself, and his greatest ambition apparently was to train his own children by the best advantages obtainable so that they might be In a position to continue his line of work but on a higher plane, though his own success was

by no means negligible. He, therefore, sent his sig through the best technical schools.

H. S. Gay, Sr., a son of the pioneer and one of 1 founders of the Gay Coal and Coke Company in Logi County, was born at Mount Carmel, Pennsylvania. finished his higher education and technical training Lafayette College, and as a mining engineer he 13 handled some of the most complicated technical pro- lems in his profession. Most of his professional wct was done in the anthracite fields of Pennsylvania. I. a time he was general manager for J. Landon & Co. pany of Elmira, New York, and also general manag. of the Thomas A. Edison Iron Ore Mines in New Jers. He was consulting engineer for several mining cor]- rations at Shamokin, Pennsylvania. He paid his fi: visit to the coal fields in Logan County in 1903 as engineer to report on coal lands for some Shamoki people. While here he located the Monitor-Yuma Lat lease and incidentally acquired for himself a lease eight hundred acres, land on which the mines of t Gay Coal and Coke Company are situated.

H. S. Gay, Sr., deserves the record of history as 0: of the pioneers in the development of this district. shipped the first car load of coal from the district Thanksgiving day, 1904. This coal was hauled wagons from the mine to Logan and there loaded on car and sent out over the recently completed railro. into the valley. The mine of the Gay Coal and Co Company is the only one in this field of any cons quence that has remained under the same manageme from its opening, a period of eighteen years. In 19 the company shipped two million tons of coal from the operations. Another feature of the record for th year is that not a single man was killed in the oper tions. This company has maintained a splendid reco in the handling and treatment of their employees, al this has contributed in no small measure to the succe and continued prosperity of the company. In the ear years they gave preference to local men in their mine until the period of the war made it necessary to bril in miners from other fields.

H. S. Gay, Sr., while still vice president and gener manager of the Gay Coal & Coke Company, has spe. little time at the mines since 1912. He is now virtnal retired and lives at Baltimore. When he made his fir trip to the Logan field there was no railroad, and ], left the train at Dingess. on the Norfolk and Wester and the rest of the journey of about thirty miles ] made by horseback over the mountains. As an operat and as a mining engineer H. S. Gay, Sr., has been ass ciated with operations in every field in West Virgini including the New River, Pocahontas, Paint Creek al Cabin Creek districts. There is nothing in the miuit industry with which he has not come in contact 1 practical experience. The first work he ever did arour the mine was running a pump in the anthracite field ( Pennsylvania. At one time he had charge of the dee est mine in the United States, located at Shamoki Pennsylvania, and owned by the Nielson Colliery Con pany. This mine was 2,000 feet deep.

H. S. Gay, Sr., married Lallia J. Batdorf, a native ( Tremont, Pennsylvania. Their family consisted of tw sons and two daughters. The other son, Leslie N., a physician at Baltimore, and was a first lieutenant i the Medical Corps during the World war.

Harry S. Gay, Jr., who is the active representativ of the third generation in this notable family of mine and mine operators in America, was born at Lyken Pennsylvania, April 7, 1889. He was of age for activ military duty during the great war, and it was his six cerest desire to get overseas with the troops, but th authorities would not permit him to leave his essentia duties in the mining field. Mr. Gay is a graduate o the Shamokin High School with the class of 1906. Tha school, located in a great industrial district, offered ur' surpassed facilities for technical training and gave hi the foundation of his technical training as an engineer

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From high school he entered Lehigh University with- at examination, and graduated in 1910 with the degree of Mining Engineer. Fer six months following his graduatien he was employed by the Tremont Water ad Gas Company, of which his father was president. Ie was then a constructing engineer with the Phila- delphia and Reading Railroad at Frackville, Pennsyl- ania, and left that to come to Logan as mining engi- heer for the widely known firm of Pittsburgh engineers, W. G. Wilkins & Company. Six months later, in June, 1912, Mr. Gay became assistant te his father in tho Gay Coal and Coke Company operations. Since 1914 le has been general superintendent ef the plant, and was the responsible executive in charge throughout the peried of the World war.

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History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 2, Part 78

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