History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 2, Part 81

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HARRY SCHERE, ESQUIRE, Williamsen, West Virginia. Mr. Scherr was born June 6, 1881, at Maysville, Grant County, West Virginia, the son ef Arnold C. and Kather- ne (Nickel) Scherr. Arnold C. Scherr was born in Switz- rland, August 19, 1847, and accompanied his parents to his country at the age of eight years. His father was a olenel in the Swiss Army, whe with other Swiss officers at he outbreak of the Crimean war went to England and endered his services to the British Queen, becoming an officer in the British Army. Coming to the United States, le was offered a colonelcy in the United States Army at he outbreak of the Civil war, but could not accept on ac- count of ill health.

Arneld C. Scherr was a merchant and manufacturer, and er many years was prominent in the public life of West Virginia. He served eight years (1901-1909) as state au- litor, and was the republican candidate for governor in 1908, being defeated. He died in 1917.

The subject of this sketch attended the public schools at Maysville and Keyser, a military academy in Allegheny County, Maryland, and the West Virginia University. He was admitted to the bar in the summer of 1905 and located it Williamson, having accepted a position in the law office of Sheppard and Geodykoontz. On July 1, 1907, he became he junior partner in the firm of Sheppard, Goodykoontz ind Scherr. In 1912 Mr. Sheppard retired from the firm, ind the present firm of Goodykoontz, Seherr and Slaven be- came the successor of the firm of Goodykoontz and Scherr n 1919, Mr. Lant R. Slaven having been admitted as i member. Mr. Scherr is an officer and director in sev- ral financial and industrial enterprises, among others ha National Bank of Commerce of Williamson; and is ity attorney and member of the Board of Education of Williamson Independent School District. Ile was the first president of the Coal City Club, which later became the

Chamber of Commerce, of which, also, he was the first president and in which capacity ho is now serving. He served two years as assistant prosecuting attorney of Mingo County, having been appointed in 1906. During the entire period of the World war, he was a member of the Local Draft Board of Mingo County. In 1920 he was a delegate to the Republican National Convention, which nominated President Harding.

Mr. Scherr is married and has two children, Harry, Jr., and Barbara. Ils is an Episcopalian, a Kiwanian, and his college fraternities arc Kappa Alpha and Delta Chi. Ile is a member of the Mingo County, West Virginia State and American Bar associations.

JAMES R. BROCKUS, whe is now captain of Company B of the West Virginia State Police, with headquarters in the court house at Williamson, Mingo County, has the rank of lieutenant colonel in the United States Army Reserves. His service in the United States Army covered a period of twenty-three years and ten months, and within this long period he was in forty-one different states of the Union and also in seven foreign countries. He passed fourteen months in Alaska, four years on the Mexican border, seven years in the Philippine Islands, besides which he was with the American troops in China at the time of the Boxer uprising, and was in France in the period of the World war. In nearly a quarter of a century of active and efficient service in the United States army Colonel Brockus was in the best of physical health, and his entire interval of confinement in hos- pital did not exceed ten days. IIc made an admirable record, as shown in the text of his various discharges from the army, in which he promptly enlisted at the expiration of his various terms until his final retirement. He rose in turn through the grades of cerporal (second enlistment), sergeant and battalion sergeant major (Boxer rebellion in China). West Virginia is fortunate in having gained this seasoned soldier and sterling citi- zen as a member and officer of its state police.

Colonel Brockus was born at Erwin, Unicoi County, Tennessee, on the 8th of August, 1875, and is a son of William K. and Sarah (Parks) Brockus, the father hav- ing been a skilled mechanic and having conducted z shop at Erwin. In the public schools of his native town Colonel Brockus gained his early education, which was supplemented by a course in a business college at Naslı- ville, Tennessee.

In 1893 Colonel Brockus enlisted in Company F, Twenty-second United States Infantry, and after spend- ing three years at Fort Keough, Montana, he received an honorable discharge. At Nashville, Tennessee, he soon afterward re-enlisted, at this time as a member of the Fourteenth United States Infantry. It was within this period of enlistment that he was with his command in Alaska for fourteen months. Later he was in service in the Philippine Islands, whence he went with his command to China at the time of the Boxer rebellion, his second discharge having been received while he was at Pekin, China. He then returned to the United States and engaged in the hardware business in his native town. Thero he lost all of his investment as the result of a fire, and he then enlisted in Company D, Eighteenth United States Infantry, with which he was in service at Fort Bliss, Texas. Later he was at Fort Logan, and next he was assigned with his command to service in the Philippines, his second trip to those islands having been made in 1903. In the Philippines he served with Company D, Fifteenth Infantry, in Mindinno, but he purchased his discharge and rejoined his old command as a member of Company D, Eighteenth Infantry. Hle returned to the United States en the 15th of November, 1909, and from Camp Whipple Barracks, Arizona, way sent to service on the Mexican border. In connection with the nation's participation in the World war Col- onel Brockus was commissioned second lieutenant at Nogales, Arizona, on July 9, 1917, and sent to the Of- ficer's Training School at Fort Benjamin Harrison, Indi- ana, where on August 15th he was commissioned captain

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and assigned to the Three Hundred and Thirty-first In- fantry at Camp Sherman, Ohio. On December 31, 1917, he was advanced to the rank of major and went with the Eighty-third Division to France, where the division received final training and equipment for front-line serv- iee. After the signing of the armistice Major Brockus was transferred to the One Hundred and Twenty-eighth Battalion of the Military Police Corps at Laval. He sailed for home June 21, 1919, and landed at Newport News, Virginia, on the 3d of the following month. Ilis command was mustered out at Camp Taylor, Kentucky, where he received his final discharge July 24, 1919. He again enlisted, as a first sergeant, and was sent to Fort George Wright, where he remained until May 13, 1920, when he was retired with eredit and with the pay of a warrant officer for thirty years' service. After a brief visit to his old home in Tennessee Colonel Broekus joined the West Virginia State Police, August 29, 1920, and was sent to the Mingo coal fields, where he has con- tinued in active service except during the recent in- terval when Federal troops were here in connection with mine troubles. He is now captain of Company B of the State Police, and during the recent miners' invasion he had command of seventy-two state police, including two officers and also eighteen volunteers. Ile was under fire many times in the Philippines and in the Boxer up- rising, but has stated that he heard more hostile bullets during the mine troubles in West Virginia than at any other period of his long military experience. A man and a soldier of fine personality, Colonel Broekus has made many friends within the period of his residence and official service in West Virginia. Colonel Brockus is a member of the American Legion, a thirty-second degree Mason and a member of the Shrine.

WILLIAM CASSIUS COOK, county superintendent of schools for MeDowell County, was born on a farm at Windom, Wyoming County, this state, on the 21st of November, 1882, and is a son of Rev. William H. H. Cook and Mary Jane (Cooper) Cook, the former of whom still re- sides at Windom, where he was born November 5, 1840, and the latter of whom died in 1918, at the age of seventy-four years.

Rev. William H. H. Cook is a son of Thomas Cook, and the family settled in what is now Wyoming County, West Virginia, shortly after the close of the Revolution, the original American progenitors having come from Eng- land and settled in Virginia in the early Colonial period. Rev. William II. H. Cook is a man of fine intellectual ken, he having been largely self-educated, and his life has been one of high ideals and exalted service. As a clergyman of the Missionary Baptist Church he gave pastoral service to four different churches in Wyoming County, and in the early days he frequently rode forty miles in a single day on horseback in making visitation to these churches. He was a gallant soldier of the Union during virtually the entire period of the Civil war, and lived up to the full tension of the conflict. In 1865, shortly after the elose of the war, he was one of a numerous company of Union soldiers who marched over the mountains and across the valleys to hold a reunion with Confederate soldiers at Welch, the judicial center of MeDowell County having at that time been marked by an open field and a single log cabin. In earlier years Mr. Cook was a successful and popular teacher in the schools of this section of the state, and he has ever striven, with much of ability and fine stewardship, to aid and uplift his fellow men. He served two terms in the Lower House of the State Legis- lature and two terms in the State Senate. He is a re- publican, but has worked for political peace and amity rather than for strident partisanship. He has been presi- dent of the First National Bank at Pineville from the time of its organization, and in all of the relations of life his influence has been benignant and helpful. Of the thirteen children all are living but one. The seven sons and five daughters have all received liberal educa- tions and all have been successful teachers. The de-

voted and revered mother was a daughter of Re- Thomas Austin Cooper, a teacher and a clergyman of th Missionary Baptist Church.

After having attended school in a primitive log schoo house William C. Cook pursued higher studies as student in the Concord Normal School at Athens. R taught his first school at Clarks Gap, near the boundar line between Mercer and Wyoming counties, his salar being $30 a month, and from the same he saved $10€ after paying $5 a month for board. Ile used his earr ings to defray his expenses at the normal school, in whie he was graduated in 1907. The next year he taugh school, and the succeeding year he was bookkeeper fo the Tidewater Coal Company at Kimball, MeDowej County. In 1909 he was elected county superintender. of schools, and by successive re-elections he has sinc continued the incumbent of this office, in which he ha done an effective work in bringing the school syster of the county up to a high standard. He was a membe of the first school-textbook commission, 1912, in Wes Virginia, in 1922 and at the time of this writing is a) influential member of the State Board of Education besides which he is a member of the executive committed of the West Virginia State Educational Association.

In the World war period Mr. Cook served as a membe of Draft Board No. 2 in McDowell County, besides being active in support of the various patriotic service ir the county. He is affiliated with Bluefield Lodge o: the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, is a Master Mason, and he and his wife are zealous members of the Missionary Baptist Church, he having been for a num ber of years influential in the affairs of this church ir his home community and in the state. He has beer specially active in Sunday School work and served for years as Sunday School superintendent. His brother Dr. Ulysses G., is a physician and also a clergyman of the Missionary Baptist Church, and resides at Beckley Raleigh County; another brother, Rev. John Jay Cook is pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in the City of Charleston. Thomas A., another brother, is a member of the faculty of the Concord State Normal School at Athens.

In 1907 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Cook and Miss Lulu Stewart, who was born in Mercer County and who is a daughter of the late C. M. Stewart. Mr. and Mrs. Cook have two children: Eunice and William C., Jr.

JOHN THOBURN MORGAN, member of the historic Morgan family of West Virginia, is a mechanical engineer by pro- fession, and has been closely associated with the upbuilding and sneeess of the Charleston Electrical Supply Company, of which he is sales manager, secretary and one of the di- rectors.

Both he and the present governor, Ephraim F. Morgan, are descendants of Col. Morgan Morgan, and both are descendants of the historic character, David Morgan, a son of Col. Morgan Morgan. Col. Morgan Morgan was born in Wales, was educated in London, and during the reign of William III came to America, living for a time in the Colony of Delaware and subsequently moving to the vicin- ity of Winehester, Virginia. About 1727 he is credited with having made the first white settlement and having built the first church in what is now Berkeley County, West Vir- ginia. One of his sons, Zackwell Morgan, served as a colo- nel in the Continental Army during the Revolutionary war, and had previously founded Morgantown. Stephen H. Morgan, who was the grandson of David Morgan, was the father of Smallwood G. Morgan, grandfather of the Charles- ton business man.

Benjamin S. Morgan, son of Smallwood G. and Oliza (Thorn) Morgan, has been a distinguished figure in West Virginia educational affairs and also as a member of the bar of Charleston. He was born in Marion County in 1854, and graduated from the University of West Virginia at Morgantown in 1878, subsequently taking the law course and receiving the LL. B. degree in 1883. As a youth he took up educational work, and he served as superintendent

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the public schools of Morgantown from 1878 to 1851 d was county superintendent of schools for Monongalia ounty from 1881 to 1885. In the general election of 1554 was democratic candidate for state superintendent of ee schools, was elected, and was renominated and re- ected in 1888, each time receiving the largest vote given any candidate for state oflice. Eight years of his service « state superintendent of schools coull be characterized as period of special growth and improvement in the educa- oual facilities and the enlightened opinion of the state ·garding the use and development of school facilities, He augurated and put into practice a number of features that 'e still part of the state's policies in regard to the control id management of schools. At the close uf his second term state superintendent Benjamin S. Morgan began the ivate practice of law at Charleston, where he is still a rominent member of the bar. He married Annie Thuburn, daughter of John and Jane ( Miller) Thoburn, both tives of Belfast, Ireland.

John Thoburn Morgan, their son, was horn November 25, ›$9, at Charleston and was educated in the public schools f his native city, and for three years, from 1906 to 1909, as a student in the University of West Virginia, where he pecialized in engineering. In 1909 he entered the service f the Charleston Electrical Supply Company. He was one : the first of the type of modern salesmen who combines chnieal knowledge and engineering with salesmanship. To iis firm he bas given the best of his abilities and through arious promotions has reached the post of sales manager nd secretary of the corporation. From 1913 to 1917 he as employed by the Ohio Brass Company of Mansfield, hio, as district sales agent in Southern West Virginia, outhwestern Virginia and Eastern Kentucky.

The Charleston Electrical Supply Company was founded 1 1902 by the late Howard S. Johnson, who was its presi- ent until his death in February, 1921. It is exclusively a holesale electrical supply house and undoubtedly one of the rgest and best equipped concerns of its kind in the eoun- y, and has contributed not a little to Charleston's prestige s a wholesale center. Mr. Morgan has a staff of highly ained and expert salesmen covering the territory. These lesmen might more properly ho classified as sales en- ineers, sinee they carry out the long standing policy of the ouse that its representatives should be technical men as ell as salesmen. There is an efficiency and organization, eveloped through years of practice. that gives this house astified precedence throughout its trade territory.

Mr. Morgan is an associate member of the American oeiety of Mechanical Engineers, associate member of the merican Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers, ssociate member of the Institute of Radio Engineers and n active member of the Society of American Military ngineers. Membership in the latter order recalls the two ears he spent in the American army during the World war s an engineer. He held the rank of captain. He entered e First Officers' Training Camp at Fort Myer, Virginia. : 1917, joined the Engineer Officers' Training Camp at elvoir, Virginia (later Camp Humphreys), received further aining in the American University Camp at Washington. nd went overseas with the Three Hundred and Fifth En- ineers of the Eightieth Division, reaching France early in une, 1918. During the summer that marked the climax of le allied efforts against the German armies he was with is division on the British front, in the Argonne, and after le armistice he was ordered to Coblenz, being attached the staff of the chief engineer of the Third Army. While ill in Europe he received his discharge and reached home lay 30, 1919. Before returning home he spent two months France and England on special sales investigation work or the Ohio Brass Company of Mansfield, Ohio.

Mr. Morgan married Miss Rebecca Putney, member of tho rominent Putney family of the Kanawha Valley. Through er mother she is a member of the Littlepage family. Her arents were Alexander Mosely and Albirta Rebecca (Little- age) Putney, of Kanawha County. Her father was a randson of Dr. Richard Ellis Putney, one of the foremost itizens of his day in this valley. Her mother is a sister f the late Adam B. Littlepage, who represented the Charles-

ton District in C'ongress and was one of the really eminent lawyers and men of affairs of the state.

To Mr. and Mrs. Morgan were horn on December 6, 1921, a sun and daughter (twins), John Thoturn Morgan, Jr., de ceased, and Rebecca Putney Morgan.

FORNEY WADE. One of the leading and successful busi ness men of Morgantown is Forney Wade, who as sales manager of the Central Automobile Corporation is one of the best known and most popular nutomolle men of the State of West Virginia. Mr. Wade has been identified with this line of business for more than ten years, during which period he has made the most of his opportunities and has taken advantage of his chances to better his personal con dition while at the same time adding to the prestige of his company. In this dual ambition he has been eminently suc- cessful, and in the meantime has not overlooked or neglected his opportunities to serve his city in the role of publie- spirited citizen.

Mr. Wade was born Angust It. 1980, near Mount Morris, Pennsylvania, but in Monongalia County, West Virginia, and is a son of the late Jess and Sarah Jane ( Clovis) Wade, both of whom were born in the same county. Jess Wade was a life long farmer and a man of industry and good character, who had the respect of his neighbors and a good record for citizenship. The boyhood and youth of Forney Wade were passed on the home farm, but his ambitions did not run along the line of agricultural endeavor, and after securing a public-school education, at the age of nineteen years, he left home and, learning carpentry, went to the West and spent three years in working at that trade in Illinois and Iowa. Returning to Monongalia County in 1902, in partnership with his brother, Jarrett Wade, he en- gaged in the building and contracting business, and the association continued until the death of his brother in 1905. Mr. Wade continued in the same line, with a modest de. gree of success, until 1911, when he changed his activities into another field of endeavor. For some time he had been interested in the automobile industry, and had been cogni- zant of its constantly-growing importance in the business world and in 1911 he and Ben tiarrison, a son of M. S. Garrison and now service manager of the Central Automo bile ('orporation, joined forces and in a small way engaged in the automobile business at Morgantown as agents for the Central Automobile Company, Ine. In 1917 this com pany was dissolved, but was immediately reorganized as the Central Automobile Corporation, which now handles Ford cars and parts in the counties of Harrison, Mononga- lia and Marion with service stations at Morgantown, Fairmont, Mannington and Clarksburg. This $200,000 corporation has the following officers: Dell Roy Richards, president ; A. W. Bowlby, vice president and treasurer : D. C. Garrison, secretary; Charles G. Baker, attorney; Forney Wade, sales manager; and Ben Garrison, service manager. In the capacity of sales manager Mr. Wade has contributed materially to the success of this concern and at the same time has evidenced the possession of qualities which place him among the capable automobile men of his section. IIe is a member of the Masons Odd Fellows and Elks at Mor- gantown, and belongs to the Rotary Club and the Chamber of Commerce. His religious faith is that of the Methodist Protestant Church. In 1906 Mr. Wade married Miss Har riette F. Sayer, daughter of William Sayer, of Orion, Illi nois.

ARTHUR V. HOENIG. Elsewhere in this volume is a brief history of The Carter Oil Company, one of the oldest and most extensive oil producing companies operating in the state of West Virginia. This company was incorporated in 1893, and just four years later Arthur V. Hoenig entered its service in the home offices at Titusville, Pennsylvania, and with the exception of a few years since has been con tinuously with that corporation.

He was born at Titusville. Pennsylvanin, June 29, 1-77. son of Joseph and Mary (Mayer) Hoenig. His parents were born and reared in Germany, coming to the United States in 1852, and were married after arrival in this coun try. Arthur V. Hoenig grew up in his native city, attended

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public schools there, and finished his education in Eastman's Business College at Poughkeepsie, New York. In 1897 he became a clerk with The Carter Oil Company, and soon was transferred from their main business offices in Titus- ville, Pennsylvania, to their field headquarters at Sisters- ville, West Virginia. After about a year in the Sistersville offices he was successively engaged in the Sistersville Yard in connection with shipping; in field work in connection with leasehold operations, drilling, pumping, etc .; and in the land department, obtaining leases for drilling and de- velopment purposes. Subsequently he was returned to pro- ducing operations, first as assistant superintendent and then as district superintendent of general oil well operations.

In 1903 Mr. Hoenig, together with D. A. Bartlett, of Marietta, Ohio, engaged independently in the business of prospecting for oil in Ohio and West Virginia. The partner- ship was dissolved in 1904, and Mr. Hoenig, with others from Titusville, entered the Oklahoma oil fields, where he was similarly engaged for a year.

Early in 1906 he resumed his connection with The Carter Oil Company as superintendent of properties in the Woods- field, Ohio District. The company in 1909 transferred him to Bremen, Ohio, in a similar capacity. In 1916 he was sent to Tulsa, Oklahoma, and the same year transferred to Wichita, Kansas, and in both those cities was super- intendent of The Carter Oil Company (Western Division) properties.

In 1919 Mr. Hoenig had charge for the Standard Oil Company (New Jersey) of a party of geologists in a sur- vey of Venezuela and Colombia, South America, for the purpose of taking up land for oil development. In May of the same year Mr. Hoenig returned to the United States and made his official report, but in July again returned to South America. In September, 1919, he returned to the United States, and since October of that year has been located at Parkersburg as vice president and general man- ager of the Eastern Division of The Carter Oil Company, and also interested in developing the Standard Oil Company (New Jersey) properties acquired in Venezuela and other foreign countries.

Mr. Hoenig is a republican in politics. He is a Catholic and is a member of the Rotary, Country, Blennerhasset and Elks Club at Parkersburg. In 1905, at Sistersville, West Virginia, he married Miss Grace E. Marsh. They have two children, Karl M. and Martha J.

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History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 2, Part 81

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