History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 2, Part 86

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ployes is retained and branch establishments are operate at Moundsville and Wellsburg, this state, and at Steuben ville and Barnesville, Ohio.

Mr. McDermott was born at Buckhannon, Upshur County West Virginia, September 5, 1884, and is a son of James an. Catherine (Maloy) McDermott. Mr. McDermott was bor: in County Roscommon, Ireland, and was six years old a the time the family home was established in what is nov West Virginia, in 1852. He was reared in Upshur County and was there successfully engaged in farm enterprise fo many years. His death occurred in 1919, and his widow i still living and resides at the old homestead in Upshu County, West Virginia.

Edward J. McDermott attended the public schools and remained on the home farm until he was eighteen years old when, in 1902, he found employment as a telephone lineman his efficiency gaining him promotion to the position of fore man within two weeks after he initiated his service. Late he became master carpenter in connection with construction of railroad shops and stations on the Coal and Coke Rail way, and his next advancement was to the position of chief clerk and purchasing agent for the Davis Colliery Company then a subsidiary of the former company at Elkins. Later he served as head bookkeeper for a tannery at Hamilton until the plant was destroyed by fire. Prior to initiating his independent career he had attended the Mountain State Business College at Parkersburg, West Virginia, graduating with high honors in 1907. He made a splendid record as traveling salesman for a leading firm, The Kelly & Jones Company, engaged in the mill, mine and plumbing supply business at Pittsburgh, and for four years he sold to dealers and factories through West Virginia and in assigned districts in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Maryland. Incidentally he visited all parts of West Virginia, and established an excellent busi-i ness reputation, while he had the distinction of making the' largest single sale of valves ever turned in to his company. This sale was for 144 dozens, which were sold in the Union- town coal district. Official appreciation of his work was shown in the tendering him of a more responsible position, in charge of a branch establishment in California. He did not accept this flattering offer, as he had decided to engage in independent business, and the unqualified success of his present enterprise has fully justified his decision. What he lacked in initial capital he made up in energy and progres- siveness, and his vigorous and straightforward policies have been potent in the developing of his large and substantial business. Mr. McDermott is a stanch and active member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and the Knights of Columbus, and he and his wife are communicants of the Catholic Church.

At Kingsville, this state, Mr. MeDermott wedded Miss Winifred King, and they have three daughters, Frances Angela, Marcella and Phyllis Marie.

GEORGE B. HERVEY is superintendent of the Wheeling plant of the La Belle Iron Works, one of the largest indus- trial organizations in the Ohio Valley and one for many years a substantial element in Wheeling's prosperity as a manufacturing center.

Mr. Hervey has been connected with the La Belle Com- pany for a number of years. He represents a family whose earlier generations were chiefly distinguished by professional connections, his father having been one of the noted edu- cators of West Virginia, while his grandfather was a dis- tinguished minister of the Presbyterian Church.

The founder of the family in the Northern Panhandle of West Virginia was the great-grandfather, who came to Brook County about 1800. He was of Scotch-Irish descent. He reared his family in West Virginia, consisting of ten children, and several of his sons became ministers of the Presbyterian Church. One of these was Rev. David Hervey, who was born in 1795, and for many years was devoted to his work as a Presbyterian minister. He died at Wellsburg in Brook County in 1877.

John C. Hervey, father of George B. Hervey, was born in Brook County in 1822, was reared there, graduated from a college at West Alexandria and devoted his life to teaching and school administration. He taught in Brock County, this

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ate, Greene County, Pennsylvania, and in 1867 removed › Wheeling, where for twelve years he was superintendent f city schools, bolding that office at the time of his death, 1 1551. He was a thorough classical seholar, a cultured entleman, and left a deep impress upon the educational istory of his time. Ile was a republican, served for many ars as an elder in the Presbyterian Church, and was also Mason. John C. Hervey married Letitia Alexander, who as born in Greene County, Pennsylvania, in 1825, and died : Wheeling in 1915, at the advanced age of ninety-three. he was the mother of six children: Dorothy, who died at "heeling at the age of fifty-two, was the wife of Andrew . Patterson a farmer and real estate broker who died in uba; John A., who became an oil operator and died at indlay, Ohio, at the age of fifty-three; Lee, whose home is : 19 Virginia Street in Wheeling; Ella, wife of John R. lark, a retired farmer living at Woodlawn, near Wheeling; ennie MI., who died at Wheeling in 191s, unmarried, at the ce of fifty-four; and George B.

George B. Hervey, who was born in Ohio County, West irginia, July 24, 1867, began his education in the Wheel- g publie schools while they were still under his father's pervision. He graduated from Frazier's Business College Wheeling in Iss' and for the following five years was onneeted with R. G. Dun & Company, mercantile agency. ollowing that for one year -he was paymaster for the 'heeling Steel & Iron Company, then a year as bill clerk ith the Aetna Standard Iron & Steel Company, and for two ars was in the mercantile business.

His service with the La Belle Iron Works began in Mareh, $99, as weighmaster. Hle successively filled the office of mymaster, assistant superintendent and in 1907 was pro- oted to superintendent of the Wheeling plant, situated at e east end of Thirty-first Street. Mr. Hervey has under s immediate supervision 340 employes. The Wheeling ant is equipped with 140 cut nail machines, one skelp mill id one taek plate mill.

Mr. Hervey was a thorough patriot and leader in war tivities, encouraging men in the plant to do their best or the cause, aiding those who joined the colors, and ·ought a high degree of working efficiency to the plant a unit in the Government's industrial activities. During part of the war this plant was devoted to the inanufacture plate for depth bombs and plates for heel nails for army oes. Mr. Hervey is a republican, a member of the Episeo- al Church and affiliated with Wheeling Lodge No. 28, B. P. . E. He owns a modern home at 507 North Front Street. r. Hervey married at Wheeling in 1892 Miss Gertrude oodward Hughes, daughter of Jacob and Caroline (Wood- ard) Hughes, now deceased. Her father was in the real tate business at Wheeling. Mrs. Hervey was a grand- tughter of Mr. Woodward founder of the La Belle Iron orks in 1852. Mr. Hervey lost his first wife by death in nuary, 1899. She was the mother of two children. Helen, e younger, dying at the age of three years, Margaret 'oodward, the only surviving child, lives in the lloward partments in Pleasant Valley. June 14, 1904, at Bellaire, hio, Mr. Hervey married Miss Emma S. Miller, daughter Morris V. and Emma Miller. Her mother is still living Bellaire. Her father was a locomotive engineer with the ennsylvania Railroad. Mrs. Hervey is a graduate of the ellaire High School and was a teacher in that city until r marriage. She is a direet descendant of Robert Morris, e distinguished financier whose aid to the Continental use during the Revolution is a subjeet taken up in every merican history. To the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Hervey ere born five children: Helen Elizabeth, on April 7, 1905; irginia Miller, in 1909; Robert Morris, on July 10, 1913; orge Burdette, twin brother of Robert; and Anna Lee, ra December 27, 1915.

ROBERT HAZLETT. There is perhaps no name in Wheel- g associated more intimately with successful partieipa- on in financial and business affairs, with the institutions at have meant most to the city in its development and th nearly every branch of professional, civic and social tivities than that of Hazlett. One member of this fam-

ily is Robert Hazlett, vice president and secretary of the Dollar Savings & Trust Company, and for many years an engineer whose achievements in that field alone would af- ford him distinction.

His great grandfather and the founder of the family in America was Robert Hazlett, who was born at Coleraine, County Antrim, Ireland. lle was educated at Edinburgh l'niversity for the ministry, but was never ordamed, and on coming to the United States he located at Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and taught school in that place. Sulsse quently he became a pioneer of Washington, Pennsylvania, where he was a merchant and later a banker, and where he spent his last years. llis wife was Mary Cablwell, the daughter of Catherine Caldwell, whose maiden name way René, a French Huguenot and who has a place in history as being the founder of the first church of the Methodist Episcopal denomination in Western Pennsylvania, at Wash- ington.

Samuel llazlett, a son of the pioneer, lived all his life at Washington, Pennsylvania, and was a banker there. He died November 7, 1863. He married Sarab Johns, also a native of Washington, who died there December 10, 1573.

The history of the Wheeling branch of the family begins with a very able and distinguished physician and surgeon, the late Dr. Robert W. Ilazlett. Ile was born at Washing ton, Pennsylvania, April 16, 1525, attended Washington and Jefferson College through the senior year and recived his A. B. degree from that school. He was a collegemate of the distinguished American statesman James E. Blaine. Later he graduated from Jefferson Medical College at Phil- adelphia and began practice at Wheeling. When the Civil war came on he joined the Second West Virginia Infantry as a surgeon, with the rank of major. Following the war he located at Wheeling, and under appointment from Presi- dent Lincoln was pension examiner. Doctor Hazlett prac tieed medicine nearly half a century, and had the honor of serving as president of the West Virginia State Medical Association. He died at Wheeling September 2, 1999. He was a republican, and while reared a Methodist he became affiliated with the First Presbyterian Church at Wheeling. Ile was a dirvetor of the National Bank of West Virginia. Ile was also a member of the Grand Army of the Republic.

The wife of Doetor Hazlett was Mary Elizabeth Hobbs. That name, too, has some important associations with Wheeling. She was born at Cambridge, Massachusetts, September 23, 1-29, and died at Wheeling, October 16, 1901. Her father was John L. Hobbs, a native of South Carolina, who for several years in his early life was man- ager of glass factories at Boston and Cambridge, Mass achusetts, and on coming to Wheeling founded the Hobbs Glass Factory, which later was the Hobbs Broekunier Com- pany and is now the H. Northwood Company.

The oldest of the children of the late Doctor Hazlett is Howard Hazlett, long one of Wheeling's foremost men of affairs. Hle was born at Wheeling, is head of the firm Howard Hazlett & Son, brokers, is president of the Mutual Savings Bank and has always manifested a strong interest in community affairs, especially the Y. M. C. A. and other institutions. The second son, Samuel Hazlett, was a banker and died at Wheeling in March, 1903. Edward Hazlett is a member of the firm Edward Ilazlett & Company. stor k brokers, at Wheeling. The fourth in the family is Robert. Catherine is the wife of C. R. Hubbard, with home at Echo Point, Wheeling. Mr. Hubbard is a dire tor in the Wheeling Steel Corporation, was formerly president of the Wheeling Steel & Iron Company, and a director in the National Bank of West Virginia and the Ilazel.Atlas Com- pany. Three other children of Doctor Hazlett and wife died in infaney.

Robert Hazlett was born at Wheeling. December 24, 1863. He acquired a liberal education, beginning with the pub- lie sehools of Wheeling and completing the course of these schools in 1680. Ile then prepared for college at Linsly Institute, and from there entered the Ohio State University at Columbus in 1493. He graduated with the class of 1887 as a civil engineer. He is a member of the Sigma Chi col-

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lege fraternity, and was president of the senior class of 1887, and still has that honor. He was also president of the Ohio State University Oratorical Association.

The thirty-four years since he left college has been a period of intense activity on the part of Mr. Hazlett. On returning to Wheeling he practiced civil engineering, for some time was connected with the Wheeling Bridge & Terminal Company, and was assistant engineer in building three tunnels and the bridge across the Ohio River for this corporation. In 1891 he accepted a new post at Wash- ington, D. C., as chief engineer of the Washington & Arlington Railway Company. As chief engineer he built the first electric line to the Arlington Cemetery, and in- cluded in this work was a proposed bridge across the Potomac near the Aqueduct Bridge. In 1893 Mr. Hazlett removed to New York City, and for two years was in the office of Job Abbott, consulting engineer, engaged in the preparation of station plans for the Bangor & Aroostook Railroad Company in Maine.

Mr. Hazlett returned to Wheeling in 1895 and became associated with Gillmore Brown under the firm name of Brown & Hazlett, engineers. This firm rebuilt and elec- trified the Wheeling & Elm Grove Railroad Company 's lines, built the Parkersburg Electric Street Railway system at Parkersburg, West Virginia, huilt the waterworks sys- tem for the Wheeling Suburban Water Company, and did a great deal of other work involved in a general practice of municipal and street railway engineering. The partner- ship was dissolved in 1901, and after that Mr. Hazlett con- tinued the profession alone. He was chief engineer in building the Panhandle traction line from Wheeling to Wellsburg, and also made the surveys and started the con- struction work in Fairmont and Clarksburg for the Fair- mont & Clarksburg Street Railway Company.

In 1911 Mr. Hazlett was appointed postmaster of Wheel- ing hy President William H. Taft, and served in that office until March 1, 1914, when he resigned to accept the position of secretary of the Dollar Savings & Trust Com- pany of Wheeling, and since 1919 has also been vice presi- dent as well as secretary.

Mr. Hazlett for many years has been a leader in the republican party in West Virginia. For six years he was a member of the first and second branches of the City Council of Wheeling, and for six years was county engi- neer of Ohio County. In November, 1903, he was elected to represent Ohio County in the House of Delegates, serv- ing during the sessions of 1904-06. In November, 1905, he was elected a member of the State Senate, and served from 1906 to 1910. At the same time he was member of the State Republican Executive Committee. Mr. Hazlett is treasurer of the First Presbyterian Church of Wheel- ing, is affiliated with Wheeling Lodge No. 28, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, Wheeling Country Club, Fort Henry Club, Wheeling Chamber of Commerce, and the American Society of Civil Engineers.

Among other business interests he is president and a director of the Wheeling Belmont Bridge Company, presi- dent and director of the Wheeling lee & Storage Company, a director in the Wheeling Mold & Foundry Company, a director in the Greenwood Cemetery Association. He was an associate member of the Military Training Camps As- sociation, and was identified actively with all the local drives during the war.

March 15, 1909, at Wheeling, Mr. Hazlett married Miss Anne M. Cummins, daughter of James and Matilda (Mc- Kennan) Cummins, residents of Wheeling, where her fa- ther is a merchandise broker. Mrs. Hazlett is a graduate of the Rye Seminary at Rye, New York. The three chil- dren of their marriage are: Robert C., born June 7, 1910; James C., born March 4, 1912; and Catherine Hobbs, born August 1, 1913.

ISAAC LOEWENSTEIN. Of the men prominently identified with the financial and commercial interests of Charles- ton, few have gained a higher reputation for ability and fidelity than has Isaac Loewenstein, president of the Charleston National Bank. He has been active as a

lawyer, manufacturer and banker of this city for near twenty-five years, and his career has been an exempla one, illustrating the heights to which a man may atta through the exercise of native ability and perseverand His entire life has been passed at Charleston, and fully exemplifies the alert, enterprising character f which the people of this city have always been note

Mr. Loewenstein was born at Charleston, Septemb 5, 1873, and is a son of Solomon and Henrietta (Fec heimer) Loewenstein. His father, a native of German immigrated to the United States just prior to the Civ war and settled at Cincinnati, Ohio, where he met al married Miss Feckheimer, a native of New York, w) had been reared at Cincinnati. During the war betwe the states Solomon Loewenstein enlisted in the Twent third Ohio Volunteers and served under Maj. Willia MeKinley, principally in West Virginia. For abo eighteen months he was stationed on the Kanawha Rive opposite Charleston, and when he received his honorab discharge he took up his residence in this city, in 186 and here spent the remainder of his life. A harnes maker by trade, he first opened a modest retail esta lishment, but later was joined by his sons Louis al Mose, and at that time the business became Loewenste & Sons and extended its operations to wholesale dealir and manufacture of saddlery and harness. Louis Loewe. stein died in 1903, but the father continued in the bus ness until his death in 1909, when he was seventy-8. years of age. He was survived by his widow until 192 After the death of the father the remaining memb of the firm, Mose, began to fail in health, and died i 1910. The business was continued by the other sons, Jo and Abe, who had already been in the business, an Isaac, who, while not active in the business, still retail his interest therein. Joe and Abe still continue to of erate this enterprise, which retains the honored sty of Loewenstein & Sons. This is one of the old and su stantial business concerns of the city and enjoys a excellent reputation and a high standing.

Isaac Loewenstein attended the public schools, c Charleston, following which he enrolled as a studer at the University of West Virginia, where he pros cuted a law course and was graduated with the degre of Bachelor of Laws as a member of the class of 189. He was admitted to practice in the same year, and soo secured a large and representative clientele. From 189 he was a member of the law firm of MeWhorter , Loewenstein, his partners being H. C. and L. E. M. Whorter, but in 1909 he retired from the law to giv his attention to the business of Loewenstein & Son: In 1915 they purchased the interests of Dr. L. Pritchar in the Charleston National Bank, and at the same tim affected a consolidation with the National City Bank Isaac Loewenstein, who had been a director in the latte institution, was elected president of the consolidate, bank, and J. S. Hill, now state bank commissioner, be came cashier. The Charleston National Bank, which wa founded in 1884, is a United States depository and member of the Federal Reserve System. It is the larges national bank in West Virginia.

Mr. Loewenstein is a republican in his political al legiance. Although the scope of his work in variou business and financial interests has always been broad he has also been active in all matters concerning th public welfare. In the promotion of charitable move ments and matters tending to benefit the public wea he is an active and unostentatious worker. His labor have not only been an element in promoting his own success, but have also constituted a potent factor in th development of Charleston, and his influence has been all the more efficacious from the fact that it is mora rather than political, and is exercised for the publi good. During the World war Mr. Loewenstein server as county chairman of all the Liberty Loan drives an( put the county "over the top" every time. He is : member of the Charleston Rotary Club and of other civil and social bodies.

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HARRISON B. SMITH. Now for over thirty years a promi- at member of the Charleston bar, also a banker, the tstanding achievement of the carcer of Harrison B. Smith the George Washington Life Insurance Company, in this ganization of which he was a leader and of which he is pesident.

This company was established in 1906 and had the great vantage of incorporating from the beginning the recom- ndations and principles derived from the work of the ighes and other investigations of the general field of life urance. It was inaugurated as a home company, supply- ; a direct and individual service which could not so well supplied by the large and unwieldy companies, and an- ier principle in its organization was to apply to the benefit West Virginia the investment funds accruing to the npany. Operated on such a basis, the company from the 'set has enjoyed a generous support from the citizens of est Virginia, and the company has steadily emphasized its icy of building up the communities in which it sought siness, and particularly the investment of its funds in est Virginia. After the period of vicissitudes inseparable m the experimental stage the company has grown in ancial strength, in scope of business operation, and "oughout its history the officers have held to a policy of w and sound growth rather than uncontrolled expansion. e company now has nearly $3,000,000 of assets, has $17,- ),000 of outstanding insurance upon lives, has an annual ome of about $750,000 and has consistently maintained erves protecting its insurance contracts largely in excess legal requirements. With West Virginia as its primary d of investment, the management of this department has en so able that the company has had only one foreclosure ceeding, and in spite of the difficult period just past, in ich the wisest financial judgment frequently failed, the upany has never had to write off any bad or questionable ns or investments.

Harrison B. Smith was born at Charleston in 1866. He presents one of the oldest and most distinguished families Western and old Virginia. His grandfather, Col. Ben- nin Harrison Smith, was born in 1797 near Harrisonburg, rginia, son of Benjamin Harrison and Elizabeth (Crav- ) Smith and a lineal descendant in the male line of Capt. hn Smith of Augusta County, Virginia. Benjamin Har- on Smith was an officer in the Revolutionary war. Col. njamin Harrison Smith settled at Charleston, Kanawha anty, in February, 1822, and took up the practice of law, ich was his life-long profession. In 1833 he was elected member of the Virginia State Senate, and twice re-elected. served in the Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1855. was also a member of the Wheeling Convention of 1852 ich formed the State of West Virginia. President Lin- n appointed him United States district attorney in the F state, and he filled that office four years. In 1868 be s a candidate for governor on the democratic ticket, but s defeated. Col. Benjamin Harrison Smith, who died Charleston, December 10, 1887, married Roxalana Noyes, ative of Charleston and daughter of Isaac and Cynthia forris) Noyes. Their son, Maj. Isaac N. Smith, father the Charleston lawyer and financier, was born at Charles- in 1831, being the only son of his parents. He gradu- d with the honors of his class from Washington and Lee iversity at Lexington, Virginia, and prior to the Civil r had built up a successful practice as a lawyer in arleston and had served two years in the Virginia Legis- ure. In the interim of that time he made choice of the federacy, volunteered as a private in the Southern army, ved all through the war and was promoted to major. ter the war he resumed his law practice at Charleston, for many years there was little important litigation in nawha County in which he was not engaged on one side the other. As a lawyer and a citizen, like his father, he od among the foremost in his day, and exemplified the ong, brave and able traits of his ancestry. He was an er in the Presbyterian Church. Maj. Isaac N. Smith died Charleston, October 6, 1883. He had married Caroline S. arrier, a native of Charleston and daughter of Alexander and Caroline W. (Shrewsbury) Quarrier.

Their son, Harrison B. Smith, bad the splendid example

of both his father and grandfather before him at the outset of his carcer. He graduated from Princeton University in 1856, and was a law student at the University of Vir- ginia in 1888. 1n 1889 he was adnutted to the bar, and began practice at Charleston. Since 1904 Mr. Smith has been a member of the law firm Price, Smith, Spilman & Clay, an association of attorneys who stand at the very head of their profession in the state. It has been in addi- tion to the burdens of an extensive law practice that Mr. Smith has participated actively in business and the financial life of Charleston and West Virginia. Besides his work as an organizer and president and directing head of the George Washington Life Insurance Company, he is president of the Elk Banking Company and a director of the Kanawha Banking & Trust Company at Charleston. Ile is a member of the Session of the Kanawha Presbyterian Church of Charleston, and has the houor of being a member of the executive committee of the General Assembly of the l'resby- terian Church of the United States.

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History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 2, Part 86

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