History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 2, Part 89

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Hiram E. Pilcher was a lad of eight years at the time of the family removal to Huntington, and after profiting by the advantages of the public schools of this site he here attended Marshall College two voars. In 1999 he graduated from the Mountain State Business College at Parkersburg. For two wears thereafter he was clerk in the office of the roundhonse foreman of the Chicago division of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad at Garrett. Indiana. and during the following vear he held a more responsible position, in the master mechanic's office at that place. He was then transferred to Huntington and assigned to service as trace clerk in the freight de- partment, in which he eventually won promotion to the office of cashier. In 1906 he resigned his position and accepted that of chief accountant for the Wheeler- Holden Tie Company of Buffalo, New York, with which corporation he had charge of the accounting department in the Huntington office for a period of five years. In 1911 Mr. Pilcher resigned this position and assumed that of cashier in the office of the Huntington Advertiser. with which representative newspaper he thns continned his association until 1915, when he established himself in the real-estate and fire-insurance business, to which he has since continued to give his attention, his enter- prise having been developed to one of major importance in these lines in the City of Huntington and in this section of the state. He is the owner of much value able real estate at Huntington, including his attractive home property at 205 Belford Avenne.

Mr. Pilcher ia a past senior warden of Huntington

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Lodge No. 53, A. F. and A. M .; is affiliated also with Huntington Chapter No. 6, R. A. M., and Huntington Commandery No. 9, Knights Templars, of which he served one term as recorder, and he is a member of Beni- Kedem Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Charleston, and of Huntington Lodge No. 313, B. P. O. E., of which he served three years as a trustee. He was specially active in advancing local patriotic measures in the World war period, served as member of committees in charge of Government loan drives in Cabell County, as a member of the Local Draft Board, and aided in filling out ques- tionnaires for the recruited men of the county. He is a member of the Johnson Memorial Church (Methodist Epis- copal, South).

January 1, 1911, recorded the marriage of Mr. Pilcher and Miss Claudia Trainer, a daughter of William E. and Rosa Lee (Garner) Trainer, the latter of whom now re- sides at Garrett, Indiana, the father, a locomotive en- gineer in the service of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, having met his death in a railroad accident at Hicksville, Ohio, in 1903. Mrs. Pilcher graduated from a business college at Fort Wayne, Indiana, and prior to her mar- riage was in the employ of the American Bank & Trust Company of Huntington, and later of the Ohio Valley Bank of this city. She was a devoted companion and helpmeet to her husband, assisted him materially in the conducting of his real-estate and insurance business, and the supreme loss and bereavement of his life came when she died, of influenza, on the 13th of October, 1918.

FRANK PARSONS SLACK, secretary and treasurer of the West Virginia & Kentucky Insurance Agency, with of- fices at 53112 Ninth Street in the City of Huntington, is one of the prominent representatives of the general insurance business in this city and state. The company of which he is thus an executive is incorporated under the laws of both West Virginia and Kentucky, his father being vice president of the corporation and George I. Neal, of Huntington, being its president.

Mr. Slack was born at Elizabethtown, Hardin County, Kentucky, July 16, 1886, and is a son of John W. and Sallie (Dent) Slack, the former of whom was born at Bardstown, Kentucky, in November, 1851, and the latter at Louisville, that state, July 23, 1855, their marriage having been solemnized in that city, and their home being now maintained at Huntington, West Virginia. Jolın W. Slack was reared and educated at Elizabeth- town, Kentucky, where eventually he became success- fully established in the mercantile business. In 1891 he removed to Owensboro, that state, where he was iden- tified with the distillery business until 1896, when he engaged in the wholesale liquor trade in the City of Louisville. In 1902 he engaged in the general insur- ance business in the City of Cincinnati, Ohio, and in 1907 he established himself in the same line of business at Charleston, West Virginia, whence he removed to Huntington in 1914, he being now vice president of the West Virginia & Kentucky Insurance Agency. He is a stalwart advocate of the principles of the republican party, and he and his wife are communicants of the Catholic Church. Of their three children the subject of this sketch is the youngest; Ella Grace is the wife of Paul T. Monarch, who is connected with the Jeffrey- De Witt Manufacturing Company of Kenova, this state, their home being at Huntington. John D. is engaged in the general insurance business at Huntington.

In the public schools of Louisville Frank P. Slack con- tinued his studies until he had completed the work of the sophomore year in the high school. At the age of fifteen years he became associated with his father's in- surance business, which he represented through South- eastern Kentucky with residence at Pineville, that state. In 1913 he established his headquarters at Georgetown, South Carolina, where he remained two years, as repre- sentative of the same insurance agency throughout that state. Thereafter he passed one year in New York City, and on the Ist of January, 1916, he assumed his present dual office, that of secretary and treasurer of the West

Virginia & Kentucky Insurance Agency, which una his vigorous and well directed direction and progress e policies has developed the largest exclusive pay-roll surance business in the United States. The agency sures employes of coal companies in health and accid.t indemnity, the coal operators collecting the insuraje fees from the payrolls of their corporations. Mr. Slik is a stockholder in the Consolidated Insurance Agery of Huntington, and also in the W. E. Deegan Reay Company of this city. He is a member of the Hunting a Chamber of Commerce, the Guyan Country Club, Kiwanis Club, is a progressive and public-spirited c zen and is independent in politics, his support beig given to men and measures meeting the approval of judgment. He owns his attractive home property at (7 Trenton Place, Huntington.

November 29, 1914, recorded the marriage of Mr. Slet and Miss Elizabeth Ann Scobee, daughter of James Scobee, who is engaged in the wholesale lumber bu- ness at Winchester, Kentucky, his wife being deceas Mr. and Mrs. Slack have a winsome little daught, Sarah Hedrick, who was born May 10, 1917.

James Slack, grandfather of the subject of this view, was born at Slack's Landing, Pennsylvania, becaı a pioneer settler at Bardstown, Kentucky, and lat owned and operated a tannery at Elizabethtown, th state, where he remained until his death. The fami name of his wife was Scott, and she was a kinswom of Gen. Winfield Scott, the doughty American warri John Dent, maternal grandfather of Frank P. Slac passed the greater part of his life in the City of Lou ville, Kentucky, where he was a leading merchant f. many years and where he served during the Civil w as United States provost marshal.

JAMES OVERTON MARCUM, superintendent of transport tion and claim agent for the Ohio Valley Electric Railw: Company, with headquarters at Huntington, has been co nected with his present company since 1904, during whi time he has gained steady promotion and added prestig Mr. Marcum's career has been a somewhat varied one, : he started life as a professional man and later entere various fields of endeavor, finally to find success and co tentment in the railroad business.

Mr. Marcum was born in Smith County, Virginia, October 17, 1865, a son of Hon. William Wert and Eunice (Cox Marcum. The Marcum family originated in England whence the original ancestor of this branch of the famil. immigrated to America during Colonial days and settled i Virginia. The grandfather of James Overton Marcun Stephen M. Marcum, was born in August, 1818, in what i now Wayne County, West Virginia, and resided for th greater part of his life at Fort Gay in that county, wher he followed the trade of gunsmith. In the evening of lif he moved to Catlettsburg, Kentucky, where his death oc curred in August, 1893. He married Miss Jane Damror who was born in 1822, in what is now Wayne County, an died at the age of eighty-five years, in 1907, in Ming County, West Virginia.

Hon. William Wert Marcum was born December 17 1844, in Kanawha (now Wayne) County, West Virginia and was reared in his native vicinity, where he was prepare‹ for the law. In 1861, when still a mere lad, he enlisted in the army of the Confederacy for service during the wal between the states, and continued as a soldier throughout the period of the long and bitter struggle of four years being finally a member of the Eighth Virginia Cavalry. He fought at Gettysburg, in the various campaigns in Virginia and in numbers of bloody engagements, but came through unscathed and with a splendid record for bravery and fidelity to duty. On his return he resumed his law studies, and on his admission to the bar entered upon a brilliant career as a lawyer. He was distinguished for his erudition and mastery of his calling, and not only was accounted one of the leaders of the bar, but was called frequently to posi- tions of importance. For twenty-seven years he followed his profession at Louisa, Lawrence County, Kentucky, then

Laromana -

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moving to Ceredo, Wayne County, West Virginia, where continued until his death, January 15, 1912. Judge arcum was & stanch democrat. He served as county attor- y of Lawrence County for two terms, or eight years, and ter coming to West Virginia became judge of the Criminal ourt in Wayne County until that office was abolished by t of the State Legislature. Elected to the State Legisla- re, he served in that body during the session of 1911, and ted as floor manager for United States Senators Chilton id Watson. Judge Marcum was a devout member of the ethodist Episcopal Church, South, a strong supporter of s movements and a constant Sunday school worker. He kewise gave generous support to the churches of other nominations in the town and was a man of charitable pulses and actions. As a fraternalist he belonged to rescent Lodge No. 32, A. F. and A. M., of Ceredo, 'est Virginia, of which he was worshipful master at the me of his death, having filled that chair for eleven years, ad to Wayne Chapter, R. A. M. Judge Marcum married iss Eunice Cox, who was born in June, 1841, in Smith ounty, Virginia, and died at Louisa, Kentucky, April 14, 385. They became the parents of six children: James verton; Belle, who married Will O'Neal, an attorney of atlettaburg, Kentucky; Grace, the wife of Charles C. Hill, : Catlettaburg, employed in the freight department of the hio Valley Electric Railway Company at Ashland, Ken- icky; Dr. Frederick D., a successful practicing physician ad surgeon of Ceredo; Edith, unmarried, a resident of atlettsburg, Kentucky, but employed in the Day and Night ank at Ashland, that state; and Leo Frank, of Hunting- n, a bookkeeper in charge of the commissary for a coal mpany in Pike County. Judge Marcum took for his cond wife Mary Elizabeth Burgess, who was born in awrence County, Kentucky, and now survives him as a sident of Huntington, and they became the parents of ree children: Herma, the wife of Dr. L. G. Bryner, a ental practitioner of Huntington; Charles W., an employe ' the Mckinley Storage Battery Company, residing near ellogg Station, Wayne County; and Homer B., an attorney Ashland, Kentucky, who during the World war held the nk of second lieutenant and was stationed at Petersburg, irginia.

Jamea Overton Marcum received his early education in the iblic schools of Louisa, Kentucky, and in a subscription hool at Wayne, West Virginia, under Professor Taylor B. cClure, following which he studied law in the office and ider the preceptorship of his father. Admitted to the bar 1894, he practiced his profession at Wayne for one year id was then chief of police of Ceredo for a time and rved as commissioner in chancery in Wayne County under idge Thomas Harvey. On February 24, 1904, Mr. Marcum tered the employ of the Ohio Valley Electric Railway mpany, and in order to familiarize himself with the ays- m followed the vocation of motorman, at Huntington, for ght months. He then entered the claim department and is later made claim agent, and in March, 1918, in addition these duties, assumed those connected with the office of perintendent of transportation. He occupies both of these sts at the present time and maintains offices on the second or of the Miller-Ritter Building at Huntington. He is nsidered an entirely capable railroad man and has con- ibuted greatly to the effectiveness of his company's serv- :. He is a stockholder in the Consolidated Insurance mpany.

Politically a stanch democrat, Mr. Marcum was democratic ite committeeman of the Fifth Congressional District of est Virginia for four years, from January 1, 1916, to . nnary 1, 1920, and during his residence at Ceredo served mayor of that place for three terms. He is a member of First Congregational Church of Ceredo and of the board trustees thereof. Fraternally he belongs to Crescent udge No. 32, A. F. and A. M., of which he is a past maior warden; West Virginia Consistory No. 1, thirty- fond degree, of Wheeling, and Beni-Kedem Temple, A. A. ( N. M. S., of Charleston. He also holde membership in 3 Huntington Chamber of Commerce and the Rotary fib of Huntington. Mr. Marcum owns a modern residence " the corner of Second Street and C Street, West, Ceredo, Vol. II-81

one of the modern, comfortable homes of that community, as well as other real estate at Huntington and Ceredo.

On November 6, 1890, at Wayne, West Virginia, Mr. Marcum married Miss Rebecca Vinson, daughter of K. Pharoah and Nancy ( Wellman) Vinson, residents of Louisa, Kentucky, where Mr. Vinson is a retired lumberman and timberman. To this union there were born three children. Emma, the eldest, is a graduate of Marshall College, Hunt- ington, and taught school at Ceredo and Wayne prior to her marriage to Fisher F. Skaggs, un attorney of Wayne. They have one child, James Franklin, born November 2, 1919. The second child of Mr. and Mrs. Marcum, Bessia, is a graduate of the Ceredo High School and Marshall College and at present is a teacher in the Ceredo Junior High School. The youngest of the children of Mr. and Mrs. Marcum, Edward L., now an employe of the Ohio Valley Electric Railway Company at Ceredo, is a veteran of the World war, having been in the service one year. IIe was first stationed at a number of training camps in different parts of the country, but was finally transferred to the medical department and assigned to the Government hoe- pital situated at Forty-fifth Street and Lexington Avenue, New York City. He held the rank of corporal. Mr. Marcum married Miss Mabel Kessinger, of Kenova, West Virginia, and they have one child, Nancy Jim, born March 15, 1921.

NOBLE KIMBROUGH SNEED has no minor status as a gen- eral contractor in railroad and other heavy construction work, and is claimed by tho City of Huntington as one of its progressive business men. He has been con- cerned with the carrying through of numerous contracts of specially important order.

Mr. Sneed was born in the historic and beautiful little City of Charlottesville, Virginia, on the 21st of May, 1876, and is a scion of a family that was founded in Virginia in the Colonial period of our national history, the original representatives of the family in America having come from Ireland. Benjamin Noble Sneed, grand- father of the subject of this review, passed his entire life in Virginia and became the owner of a large planta- tion adjoining Monticello, the fine old plantation of Thomas Jefferson, near Charlottesville, and he served as & gallant soldier in the Mexican war. Both he and his wife, whose family name was Goodloe, died on the old homestead near Charlottesville, and a portion of this fine estate is still owned by their son, Benjamin Noble Sneed, Jr., father of him whose name initiates this review. Of their family of eight sons and four daughters, seven of the sons were valiant soldiers of the Confederacy in the Civil war.

Benjamin Noble Sneed Jr. was born on the old home plantation near Charlottesville in 1850, and there he la now living retired after a specially successful career as an agriculturist in his native county. He is a stalwart in the ranks of the democratic party, and has been in- fluential in public affairs in the community which has ever represented his home. He is a zealous member of the Baptist Church, as waa also his wife, whose death occurred in 1910. Mrs. Sneed, whose maiden name was Caroline E. Moss, was born at Charlottesville in 1853. Of the children the eldest is Edward B., who is in the employ of the N. K. Sneed Company of Huntington; Gertrude, who died at the age of forty-three years, at Richmond, Virginia, was the wife of Ernest L. Taylor, who is still engaged in business in that city; Noble K., of this sketch, was next in order of birth; Alice died at the parental home when twenty-three years of age; Lillian is the wife of Harry G. Browning, & progressive farmer near Charlottesville; and Frederick W. has charge of the steam-shovel ontfits of the N. K. Sneed Company of Huntington.

Noble K. Sneed was seventeen years of age when he left the Charlotteaville High School and entered the employ of the Farmers Supply Company in that elty. He continued this alliance until he was twenty-two years old, and then entered the employ of Langhorne & Lang- horne, railroad contractors. From tho position of stable boss he worked his way forward until he was admitted

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to partnership in the business, in 1905, when the name of the firm was changed to Langhorne, Langhorne & Sneed. He became the firm's general manager, and in 1917, after the death of his partners, he engaged in rail- road contracting in an independent way. As a matter of business expediencv. with the expansion of the enter- prise, he effected in 1921 the incorporation of the busi- ness. under the present title of the N. K. Sneed Com- manv, but he still continues as the sole owner of the business. As a contractor in railroad construction Mr. Sneed has one of the largest and most modern general eonipments in the United States. He operates fourteen steam shovels and is prepared to carry through the heaviest of construction contracts. The firm of Lang- horne, Langhorne & Sneed built the S. V. & E. Railroad from Shelby, Kentucky, to Jenkins, that state: the Silver Grove vards of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad. these being among the largest terminal vards of that system; and handled many other important contracts. In his individual contracting Mr. Sneed dredged the Lundale Channel of Buffalo Creek in Logan County. West Virginia, for a distance of ten miles for the Amherst Fuel Company: he double-tracked the line of the Hock- ing Valley Railroad between Marion and Delaware, Ohio; and has assumed other large and important contracts, his receiving of which indicates the high estimate placed upon him and his work. The general offices of his company are at 417-18 First National Bank Building in the City of Huntington.

The political allegiance, of Mr. Sneed is given to the democratic party, he is a member of the Guyandotte Club at Huntington and the Redland Club at Charlottes- ville, and in his native place he also retains affiliation with Charlottesville Lodge No. 389, B. P. O. E. He is the owner of valuable real estate both in Charlottesville and Huntington.

On the 3d of November, 1897, was solemnized the mar- riage of Mr. Sneed and Miss Lena Roberts Wood, who was born and reared at Charlottesville, Virginia, and who was there graduated in Charlottesville College. Her father, the late Llewellyn Wood, was a leading hardware merchant in that city for forty years, and there his widow, whose maiden name was Catherine Parkinson, still resides. Mr. and Mrs. Sneed have four children: Noble K., Jr., who was born February 10, 1900, was grad- uated from the Charlottesville High School and is now associated with his father's contracting business; Cath- erine, who was born in 1905, is, in 1922, a student in Ste. Anne's Seminary at Charlottesville; Allan Langhorne and Lena Wood, born respectively in 1909 and 1913, are attending the public schools of Charlottesville, where the family home is still maintained.

HARRY A. DAVIDSON is one of the vital and progressive business men of the City of Huntington, where he is president of the Superior Lumber Company. There may have been a measure of ancestral predilection in his choice of vocation, for his grandfather, Isaac Davidson, who was born in Ohio, in 1826, and who died at Wellston, that state, in 1894, was a carpenter by trade and was long and actively engaged in business as a contractor and builder. The greater part of his life was passed in Jackson County, Ohio, and the family was founded in that state in the pioneer days.

Harry A. Davidson was born at Wellston, Jackson County, Ohio, December 11, 1887, and is a son of Thomas M. and Effie Alice (Hutchinson) Davidson, both natives of Lawrence County, Ohio, where the former was born in 1863 and the latter in 1866. Thomas M. Davidson was reared and educated in the old Buckeye State, and as a youth he learned the carpenter'e trade under the direction of his father. He became a successful con- tractor in Ohio, and among the large factory buildings which he there erected were those of the Lehigh Cement Company and the Alma Cement Company at Wellston, and the plant of the Ironton Cement Company at Ironton. He has to his credit also the construction of more than 200 coal tipples. From 1909 to 1911 he was a resident

of Paintsville, Kentucky, and in the latter year came to Huntington, West Virginia, where he is ne engaged in the wholesale and retail lumber busine which he conducts under the title of the Davids Lumber Company, with offices at 86216 Fifth Avem He is a republican in politics, has completed the cire of York and Scottish Rite Masonry. in the latter of whi he has received the thirty-second degree, and he a- his wife hold membershin in the. Methodist Episcor Church. Of the seven children the subject of this revie is the eldest: Louis C. is engaged in the insurance hu ness at Portsmouth, Ohio: Catherine died at the age seven years: George E. is associated with the Dickers Lumber Company at Huntington, in the capacity of va manager; Loren I. is associated with the Davidson Im ber Company: N. Ruth is the wife of German Larrabn secretary and treasurer of the Superior Lumber Co nanv at Huntington; and Pauline remains at the parent, home.

In the high school at Wellston, Ohio, Harry A. Davi son graduated in 1906, and thereafter he attended t' Case School of Applied Science, Cleveland, Ohio. un1 he had partially completed the work of the juni year and in connection with which he became a memh of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity. In 1908 Mr. Davi son became first assistant chief engineer of the Davto Lebanon & Cincinnati Railroad, and after one vear service in this capacity he became associated with b father's contracting business and was superintendent construction on the high school building at Jackson Ohil This work took his attention several months, and f two years thereafter he was in charge of his father contract work in the erection of about 400 houses the Big Sandy District of Kentucky. In October. 1912. ] became yard foreman in the yards of the Superior Lui her Company at Huntington, a corporation that had ber organized by his father in that year. Later he was salesman for the company, then assistant manager, ar finally vice president. The organization was permitte to lapse in 1918, and Mr. Davidson then organized a ne company under the same title, this company being i corporated under the laws of the state and he beir its president. With well equipped yards and warehour and with the best of facilities the company has develope a substantial wholesale and retail business in the handlir of lumber and all other kinds of building supplies. Th retail trade of the concern is one of the largest : Huntington, and the yards and offices of the compar are established at 730 First Street. Harry S. Irons vice president of the company, Henry O. Dunfee is i treasurer and B. C. Emerson its secretary.

Mr. Davidson is a staunch republican, and he and h wife hold membership in the First Congregational Chure of Huntington. In the Masonic fraternity Mr. Davidsc is affiliated with Huntington Lodge No. 53, A. F. an A. M .; Huntington Chapter No. 6, R. A. M .; West Vi ginia Consistory No. 1, A. A. S. R., at Wheeling, i which he has received the thirty-second degree; an Beni-Kedem Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Charleston He is a member of Huntington Lodge No. 313, B. P. O. F and of the Guyan Country Club. At 200 South Boul vard he owns one of the fine modern residence propertic of Huntington, and of this attractive home his wife a most gracious and popular chatelaine.

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History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 2, Part 89

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