History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 3, Part 107

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Mr. Smith has a number of important business connec- tions, being secretary of the Bungalow Land Company, president of the Park City Oil & Gas Company, secretary and treasurer of the Huntington Cannel Coal Company, and secretary of the Cabell Oil and Gas Company, all of Hunt- ington, and secretary of the Williams Sanitarium Company of Kenova. He owns a modern residence at 232 Sixth Avenue, a comfortable home in an attractive and exclusive residential section of the city, and also holds some suburban property. In politics he is a republican, and during 1904 and 1905 was a member of the city council of Morgantown. His religious connection is with the Congregational Church, of the movements of which he has been an active and gener- ous supporter, and formerly served as state president of the West Virginia Christian Endeavor Union,

Mr. Smith has been very prominent in fraternal affairs. He is a member of Reese Camp No. 66, W. O. W., and is past head consul of the jurisdiction of West Virginia of the Woodmen of the World, this jurisdiction including West Virginia, Maryland, Delaware and the District of Columbia. He was twice sovereign delegate to the national conventions and is a member of the sovereign law committee of the Woodmen of the World. He is also a member of Hunting- ton Lodge No. 33, Knights of Pythias, of which he is past chancellor, and was for four years chairman of the judiciary committee of the Grand Lodge of West Virginia of the Knights of Pythias, now being grand inner guard of the Grand Lodge of West Virginia of this order. He belongs also to Huntington Council No. 191, Junior Order United American Mechanics, and Huntington Lodge No. 347, Loyal Order of Moose, and is treasurer of the Fraternal Society Law Association of Chicago, Illinois, a national fraternal legal association. Mr. Smith likewise holds membership in the Huntington Chamber of Commerce and the Kiwanis Club of Huntington.

On March 7, 1907, at Morgantown, Mr. Smith was united in marriage with Miss Lide Allen Evans, a daughter of Thomas R. and Delia (Allen) Evans, the latter of whom re- sides with Mr. and Mrs. Smith. Mr. Evaus, who died at Morgantown in December, 1920, was a business man of that city. The Evanses were pioneers into that part of Virginia now included in West Virginia. Mrs. Smith is a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution and of the Mayflower Society of Connecticut, and is a direct descend- ant of Elder William Brewster.

WILLIAM JOSEPH QUINN, president of the General Coal Company at Huntington, has secured standing as one of the progressive and substantial business men of the younger generation in this city. He was born at Girardville, Penn- sylvania, April 7, 1894, and is a son of William Joseph

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Quinn, Sr., and Lucy (Griffiths) Quinn, both natives of the old Keystone State, where the former was born in 1863 and the latter, in Schuylkill County, in 1866. The father became fire boss for coal mines in the district near Girard- ville, Pennsylvania, and was only thirty-three years of age when he met his death in a mine explosion at Lost Creek, Pennsylvania, in 1896, his widow being still a resident of Girardville. Mr. Quinn was a stanch republican, was affi- liated with the Knights of Columbus, and was a com- municant of the Catholic Church, as is also his widow. Of the children the subject of this review was the fourth in order of birth, and he was two years of age at the time of his father's tragic death; James is a resident of West Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and is a railroad employe; Thomas is superintendent of the A. D. Cronin Coal Com- pany at Accoville, West Virginia; Anna is the wife of Arthur Brown, of Girardville, Pennsylvania, Mr. Brown being an electrician in the service of the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad Company; Robert S. is superintendent of the U. S. Block Coal Company, with residence at Woodville, West Virginia.

William J. Quinn graduated from the high school depart- ment of Girard College in June, 1910, and thereafter he worked in various clerical capacities until 1912, at Girard- ville and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Atlantic City, New Jersey. In 1912 he became a clerk for the Berwind Lumber Company at Berwind, West Virginia, and six months later became shipping clerk for the New River & Pocahontas Consolidated Coal Company, which one year later transferred him to similar service in the City of Charleston. In 1914 he accepted a position as salesman with the Winifrede Coal Company, the mines of which are in Kanawha County, this state, and he was a representative of this corporation at Cincinnati, Ohio, until 1917, when he organized a company to take over the properties and busi- ness of the Ruffner Coal Company of Accoville, Logan County, West Virginia. He was concerned in the operation of the mine of this company until August, 1920, and was vice president and general manager of the company. In 1920 the Ruffner Coal Company sold its mine and business to the A. D. Cronin Coal Company, in which Mr. Quinn retained an interest and was made general manager, a posi- tion of which he is still the incumbent. In 1919 the Ruffner Coal Company acquired the Franklin Mine in Boone County, and this mine likewise is now owned by the A. D. Cronin Coal Company, the aggregate output capacity of whose mines is 175,000 tons of coal annually.

In 1919 Mr. Quinn purchased the U. S. Block Coal Company's mine and business, the mine having a capacity for the production of 50,000 tons of bituminous coal a year, and this property he still owns. In 1919 also he effected the organization of the General Coal Company, for the handling of the output of the mines with which he is iden- tified, and of this sales company he has since continued the president. He is president also of the U. S. Block Coal Company, and his executive offices are at 918-919 Robson- Prichard Building in the City of Huntington. Mr. Quinn is a stanch supporter of the cause of the republican party, and is affiliated with Huntington Lodge No. 313, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.

In March, 1920, at Covington, Kentucky, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Quinn and Miss Vivian Brown, who was born at Millersburg, that state, and who is a popular factor in the social circles of Huntington.

WILLIAM F. SMITH, vice president and general manager of the Kanawha Dock Company at Point Pleasant, Mason County, and also of the Point Pleasant Dry Dock Company, has been a potent force in the development of these sub- stantial and important industrial corporations. The Ka- nawha Dock Company was organized in 1902, and is in- corporated with a capital of $75,000. The company owns modern docks and sawmills, and has the best of facilities for the building and repairing of all types of vessels ply- ing the rivers of this section of the Union. John W. Hub- bard, of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is president of the com- pany; Mr. Smith has been its vice president and general manager since June, 1918; and C. E. Lawhead, formerly

connected with the Merchants National Bank of this city, is its secretary and treasurer. The Point Pleasant Dry Dock Company was organized in December, 1909, the gen- eral equipment of its plant having been purchased from the Pittsburgh Coal Company, which had constructed its dry dock at Pittsburgh in 1884. The officers of the Point Pleasant Dry Dock Company are identical with those of the Kanawha Dock Company. The dry-dock company mel with a financial loss of fully $200,000 when its property was swept away by the steamer Otto Marmett on the 14th of January, 1918, this steamer having been carried down the river by the floating ice, and from a total of twenty-one pieces the Point Pleasant Dry Dock Company recovered only its dry dock : its floating sawmills, tow boats gas, steam and timber boats all being destroyed. The dry dock was recovered below Cincinnati, Ohio, and forty-tw feet had to be cut off the dock in order to return it to Poin Pleasant. The dock is now 56 by 219 feet in dimension and can accommodate nearly all types of river craft, and i of the most approved modern type, so that its operative fa cilities insure the best of service. This is the best dry dock plant between Pittsburgh and New Orleans, and play an important part in connection with the navigation inter ests of the Kanawha, Ohio and Mississippi rivers. In re habilitating the plant after the disaster mentioned above ! large expenditure of money was entailed, including the pur chasing of the property of the Kanawha Dock Company The company now has a river frontage extending two cit; blocks, and on the land is a sawmill and four dwellin, houses for employes. The company also leases from th state 600 feet of frontage on the Kanawha River and 80 feet on the Ohio River. This leased frontage covers th site of the Tu-endie-wie Park, in which is erected the mont ment commemorating the battle which occurred at Poir Pleasant on the 10th of October, 1774. The two companie with which Mr. Smith is thus identified employ an averag force of more than 100 men, and the two enterprises ar the ones of major importance in connection with the gel eral prosperity of Point Pleasant, which depends largel upon the river traffic for its business and civic stability Mr. Hubbard, president of these two corporations, is pre ident also of the Cincinnati & Louisville Packet Line, b sides being interested in several other important enterprise in West Virginia and other states, his residence being : Pittsburgh.

Mr. Smith was reared in the City of Pittsburgh, and then he had been associated with the operation of docks fı eighteen years prior to coming to Point Pleasant. As young man he had been employed on steamboats in the co: trade plying between Ohio River points and the City New Orleans. Since establishing himself at Point Pleasar he here built the steamer W. F. Smith, which is now own by the LaBelle Steel Company of Portsmouth, Ohio. M Smith has been concerned with river navigation activiti for fully forty years. He is the owner of his attracti. home property at Point Pleasant, and is here a stockhold in the Home Building Company, of which he was ti principal organizer, besides which he is one of the origin stockholders in the Marietta Manufacturing Company Point Pleasant, West Virginia.

In 1881 was recorded the marriage of Mr. Smith to Mi Susan M. Deem, of Point Pleasant, and in the same year had charge of bringing the Ashland docks to Point Plea ant. He had the management of the docks at this place o year and for the following two years was similarly engag at Evansville, Indiana. He then returned to Pittsburg where he remained until 1909, since which year he has mai tained his home at Point Pleasant, where both his elde and youngest children were born. William Russell, the el est of the children, is associated with his father's busine activities. The maiden name of his wife was Belva Blag Henry Sidney likewise is connected with the business of 1 father. Bessie Virginia is the wife of Roy Condee, of S Diego, California. The younger children are Raymo Hartley, Susie, Howard Finley and John Hubbard.

ABRAHAM RUSH MOQUILKIN was one of the promine residents of Berkeley County during the last century. ]

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vas a merchant, successful and vigorous in the prosecution f his affairs, and exemplified the highest standards of personal character in his contact with his fellow citizens.

He was born on a farm near Bedington in Berkeley County in 1817. His father, Thomas McQuilkin, was prob- bly born in Pennsylvania, and spent his active life on a arm near Bedington and finally lived with a son in Jeffer- on County until his death. He married Sally Rush, and hey reared three children: Abraham R .; William T .; and lary, who married Thomas Van Metre.

Abraham Rush McQuilkin commenced his life of useful- less as clerk in a store at Shepherdstown, learned a business here, and a few years later set up in the mercantile business on his own account at Scrabble in Berkeley County, arrying a stock of general merchandise. This business was ontinued with uninterrupted success until the outbreak of he war between the states. He was a strong Union man, nd during the war he removed his family to Hagerstown, Maryland. After the restoration of peace he returned to Scrabble, and finally came to Martinsburg to give his laughter the advantages of the schools there. In Martins- urg he lived retired until his death at the age of eighty- ive. He and his wife were active members of the First Methodist Episcopal Church.

He married Ellen G. Rush, who was born in Jefferson County, and was very young when her father died. Her mother married a Jefferson County farmer named Marshall, nd with them she remained until her own marriage. Mrs. TeQuilkin died at the age of seventy-three. They reared wo daughters, Sally and Eliza. Sally married G. S. De- trange, of Frederick, Maryland, and is now deceased. Her hildren were named Abraham R., Don G., Henry Clay, Ieloise, Garrett and Nater. Heloise is now Mrs. Edward Oldham and lives at Worcester, Massachusetts. Henry Clay married Mrs. Steck, of Winchester, and is an orchardist. fiss Eliza MeQuilkin remained with her parents and gave hem her utmost care and solicitude during their declining ears, and she still occupies the old home in Martinsburg.

JASPER L. GRAVES, a native of Berkeley County, is one f the prosperous young business men of Martinsburg. He egan acquiring experience in mercantile lines before he eft school, and has built up a satisfactory business by teady application and industry.

Mr. Graves was born on a farm near Jones Springs in Berkeley County, son of John M. Graves, a native of the ame county and grandson of William Graves. William raves was of early English ancestry, and on leaving Penn- ylvania located in Berkeley County, on a farm on Stuckey idge. He married Sarah Stuckey, of a pioneer family of jat community. Both were stricken with diphtheria and ied a week apart, leaving two small children, the daughter barbara dying at the age of five years. John M. Graves as only five years old when his parents died, and he was ared for by his uncle, Michael Stuckey, with whom he lived ntil he was twenty-one. As a young man he did farm ork, later bought a small tract of land near Jones Springs, as a tract farmer for several years, and on leaving his arm and moving to Martinsburg, was employed at Bishops fill and lived at Martinsburg until his death at the age f fifty-two. On December 25, 1878, he married Sarah atherine Albright, who was born on a farm in Berkeley ounty, daughter of Lewis Grantham Albright, a native of le same county, and granddaughter of William Albright, ho is said to have been of Pennsylvania-Dutch ancestry. ewis G. Albright learned the trade of shoemaker, when all oots and shoes were made to order, and he followed that ·ade in connection with farming. He married Sally Shimp, nd both lived to a good old age. Mrs. Sarah Catherine raves is a resident of Martinsburg. She became the other of the following children: William Lewis, James ranklin, Nellie Gertrude, Jasper L., Ernest Cleveland and ndrew J. The son Andrew died at the age of twenty-two, hile attending a training camp at Morgantown during the orld war. William L. is a machinist by trade, and is now foreman in the Southern Pacific Railroad shops at Oak- ind, California. He married Grace Arvin, and they have iree children, named Lester, Francene and Howard. James

Franklin Graves lives at Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, is a Pennsylvania Railroad conductor, and by his marriage to Alice Gift has children named Marvin, Virginia, Sarah, Jasper and Learie. Nellie Gertrude is the wife of I. F. Hyle, foreman at the Kelly Island Stone Quarry and has a daughter, Catherine, now a student in the Martinsburg High School. The parents of these children were both active members of the United Brethren Church and reared their family in the same faith.

Jasper L. Graves at the age of fourteen began clerking in a grocery store, doing that work after hours and on holi- days. After leaving the city schools he continued clerking until 1911, then be engaged in the grocery business on his own account, and with a very small stock of goods. He now has one of the leading stores of the kind in Martinsburg. He lives with his mother. Mr. Graves is a member of the United Brethren Church and has been prominent in the church in various official capacities, having been a member of the board of trustees, is a teacher in the Sunday school and has served as president of the Christian Endeavor Society

ARTHUR MERAYMAN GILBERT is one of the veteran busi- ness men of Martinsburg, where he has been a druggist over forty years and where his judgment has been enlisted in the service of several other substantial institutions. He has been a public-spirited citizen as well, and a brief account of his career and of his family merits a place in this publication.

He was born on a farm bordering on Opequan Creek, one mile from Middleway, in Jefferson County, Virginia, now West Virginia. His father, Jacob Gilbert, was born at Middleway in 1801. His grandfather, Henry Gilbert, was born in Scotland, learned the trade of weaver, and on coming to the American colonies settled in Jefferson County, at Middleway. Here he put up his hand loom and did a thriving business greatly needed in a community whose people still depended upon the home art of manufacturing cloth from the wool grown on sheep and the cotton raised in the fields of that locality. He reared three sons, Ber- nard, Henry and Jacob.

Jacob Gilbert spent his early life as a farmer. His first wife was Mrs. Walter Burrell, of Jefferson County, owner of two plantations, upon which they continued to live and at her death he succeeded to the ownership of the property, together with many slaves. At the breaking out of the Civil war be freed the slaves and moved to Middle- way, where he owned a large stone house set amidst pleasant surroundings, and remained there until his death at the age of seventy-eight. For his second wife Jacob Gilbert mar- ried Sarah Harvey Merryman, who was born at Tomonium, Baltimore County, Maryland, daughter of Nicholas and Rebecca (Harvey) Merryman. The Merrymans and Harveys were well known old families of Maryland, and Doctor Ridgley, of Baltimore, has compiled a history of the family. Nicholas Merryman was a farmer and breeder of thorough- bred race horses, and was well known on the turf. Mrs. Sarah Gilbert died in 1879, at the age of thirty-seven. She was the mother of five children: William H., who died at Middleway in 1906; Arthur Merryman; Mary Elizabeth, of Middleway ; Roberta, who married T. A. Milton, a lawyer of Kansas City, Missouri; and Sarah M., who married Dr. D. P. Fry, of Hedgesville.

Arthur Merryman Gilbert attended private schools at Middleway, and soon after completing his education, in 1876, he came to Martinsburg and began an apprenticeship in the drug store of William Dorsey. It was in 1883 that he established himself in the drug business, and for many years had conducted one of the best drug stores in the Eastern Panhandle.

In 1893 Mr. Gilbert married Mabel Rodrick, a native of Frederick County, Maryland, daughter of Daniel W. and Mary Priscilla Rodrick. Mr. and Mrs. Gilbert have two sons, Arthur M., Jr., and Webster Rodrick. The son Arthur is a graduate of the Martinsburg High School, spent two years in Washington and Lee University, and in 1918 joined the service at Camp Lee at Lexington, Virginia, and re- mained there until the signing of the armistice. He is now

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a teller in the Old National Bank at Martinsburg. Webster, the younger son, is a sophomore in the Martinsburg High School.

Arthur M. Gilbert was a member of the city council at Martinsburg from 1892 to 1894 and was city treasurer in 1913-16. He cast his first presidential vote for Grover Cleveland, and has been active in the interest of the demo- cratic party. He has been a director of the Martinsburg National Bank and its successor, the Old National Bank, for a quarter of a century, is affiliated with Equality Lodge No. 44, A. F. and A. M., and for upwards of thirty years has been a member of Trinity Episcopal Church.

GEORGE BARLEY has been a resident of Welch, McDowell County, since 1905, and has been an influential force in the material upbuilding of the city, as well as in its ad- vancement along civic lines. He here organized the Mc- Dowell Engineering & Construction Company, and has been not only a specially successful contractor and builder, but has also built houses in an individual way, which he rents.

Mr. Barley was born at Introdaoqua, Italy, on the 26th of June, 1869, a son of Michele Barley, a successful agri- culturist. Mr. Barley passed his childhood and early youth on his father's farm, attended the schools of his native land, and after leaving the farm he became identified with railroad construction work, his more advanced education having been gained by his study at home, in otherwise leisure hours. He learned to read and write the English language after coming to the United States in 1899. After coming to this country he was for a time employed as a stone cutter in quarries at Peekskill, New York. After a period of four years he returned to his native land, and five months later he came back to the United States. His wife and children, who had remained in Italy, came to America two years after Mr. Barley made his last trip. Mr. Barley found employment in a coal mine near Elkins, West Virginia, and later he worked as a miner in the em- ploy of the Beaver Creek Coal Company at Weaver, and was a merchant at Tallmansville and Wilsonburg, in which last mentioned place he for a time had a general store. Upon coming to Welch he found employment in the mines of this distriet, and finally he established a general store here, which he conducted six years, with marked success. As a contractor and builder he has achieved substantial prosperity and an excellent reputation, he being known as one of the reliable and progressive business men of Mc- Dowell County and as one who has achieved success through his own ability and efforts. Mr. Barley is affiliated with the local Blue Lodge, Chapter and Commandery of the Ma- sonic fraternity, is a member also of the Mystic Shrine at Charleston and the Loyal Order of Moose, his political sup- port being given to the republican party and he and his family being members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.

In his native land Mr. Barley wedded Miss Mary Direnzo, and to them have been born cleven children, the seven sons being known and referred to as the Barley Seven, and all being notable for industry, business ability and sterling character The children of George Barley and wife are: John, Felix, Bena, Madlyn, Lorriane, Albert, Henry, Lina, Daniel, Charles and George, Jr .. The son John has served for a number of years as manager of the foreign depart- ment of the First National Bank of Welch and recently (in the winter of 1922) was commissioned Italian consular agent at Northfork, McDowell County, to serve during the absence of the regular incumbent, another effort being now in process to cause the transfer of this consular office to Welch, the county seat. The entire family enjoys unquali- fied popularity in the community.

ORION H. GALL, cashier of the First National Bank of Belington, has been actively associated as a young man with the commercial interests of this thriving city, though nearly two years out of his young manhood were given to the service of his country at the time of the great war. Almost immediately on his return from France he took up the duties of a civilian, and soon afterward came to his present post with the bank.

The Galls are a prominent old family of Barbour County. His ancestry runs back some four or five generations to George Gall, who was a Virginian and a soldier of the Revolution. A son of this soldier was John J. Gall, the founder of the family in West Virginia. His early home was near the Natural Bridge in Virginia, and from there he moved to West Virginia and established his home in what is now Barbour County, on Elk River, and from that regior his descendants have scattered over this state and other states. George W. Gall, grandfather of the Belingtor banker, was sixteen years of age when the family moved to Barbour County. He was a strong Union man, but two of his brothers were soldiers under Stonewall Jackson.

John Jay Gall, father of Orion H., was born at the Village of Arden in Barbour County November 15, 1851 He is now past three score and ten, but is still active ij his work as a general farmer and stock man. He has been one of the more successful stock raisers in this county handling a good grade of beef cattle. He has taken al interest in the affairs of his community, has served as : member of the School Board, is a democratic voter and : member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. Joh. J. Gall married Elizabeth Carpenter in Barbour County daughter of Allen and Harriet (Hoffman) Carpenter. Thei children are: Alva D., of Hammondsville, Ohio; W. Brad ford, of Belington; Marvin, of Morgantown; Dessie, wife o Charles S. Row, of Belington; Orion H .; Audra A., teacher in the public schools of Barbour County; Dewe L., a traveling salesman living at Morgantown; and Hugl who is still in school and assists his father on the farm.

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History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 3, Part 107

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