History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 3, Part 11

Author:
Publication date:
Publisher:
Number of Pages:

USA > West Virginia > History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 3 > Part 11

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

Mr. Bartlett is a graduate of the Eckels Embalming School of Philadelphia. In the thirteen years since he entered the profession many changes have been introduced in the technic und facilities, ranging from horse-drawn hearses to a com- lete automobile equipment. In 1914, at 314 Walnut Street, Mr. Bartlett erected a modern business house, 24 by 80 feet, + three-story brick building, including chapel and other acilities for expert service in this line. Mr. Bartlett is a past president of the Funeral Directors Association of West Virginia, and has appeared on the program at a number of ts sessions.

He has likewise been a factor in the business organizations of Grafton, beginning with the old Board of Trade, and is director and vice president of the Chamber of Commerce. Fraternally he is a past chancellor of Friendship Lodge, Knights of Pythias, past noble grand of Grafton Lodge No. 31, I. O. O. F., and in Masonry is affiliated with St. John Lodge No. 24, F. & A. M., at Shinnston, Grafton Royal Arch Chapter, is present eminent commander of De Molay Commandery, K. T., a member of Osiris Temple of the Mystic Shrine, and is also taking the Scottish Rite work st Wheeling. He is a member of the Moose and Red Men, s a director of the Rotary Club, and was reared a Baptist.

While living at Chiefton he married, on January 12, 1902, Miss Maud B. Saurborne, who was born at Camden on Gauley, West Virginia, February 21, 1885, and is a graduate of the Weston High School. Mr. and Mrs. Bartlett have

two children, Mildred, born October 15, 1904, and G. Thomas, Jr., born October 6, 1913.

HON. JOSEPH MORELAND. One of Morgantown'a best loved citizens, one of the state's ablest lawyers, was the late Judge Joseph Moreland. He practiced law over forty years, and in addition to his attainments as a lawyer he filled a num- ber of offices of trust and responsibility and was particularly interested as an official in the welfare and progress of the university. His modest deportment, his kindness of heart and his true benevolence marked him as a gentleman, while his strong intellect, directed in the channels of law and edu- cation, gained him eminence as one of the distinguished men of his day and locality. Though death closed his active career some years ago, his influence even yet is potent among those with whom he was associated.

Judge Moreland was a native of Fayette County, Penn- sylvania. His family had settled there two generations before his birth. His first American ancestor was Alex- ander Moreland. William Moreland, son of Alexander, was an American soldier in the war of the Revolution, and after the close of that struggle was a member of the Crawford Expedition against Sandusky. For his military services he was given a grant of land below Connellsville in Fay- ette County, on the Youghiogheny River.

John Moreland, son of William and Agnes (Huston) Moreland, became owner of the family homestead near Connellsville. On that property in 1842 he manufactured the first coke ever made in Fayette County. Barges were used for the shipment of the coke, and on account of his interest in water transportation John Moreland was famil- iarly known by the title of captain. In 1850 a fleet of his barges was sunk in the Ohio River at Wheeling. That put an end to his enterprise as a coke manufacturer, an in- dustry for which he could see no future. No other attempt was made to manufacture coke in Fayette County for eight years. Capt. John Moreland married Priscilla Rogers, daughter of William and Nancy (Halliday) Rogers, and great-granddaughter of Lieut. John Rogers, who lost his life while a soldier of the Revolution.

The late Judge Joseph Moreland was a son of Capt. John and Priscilla Moreland, and was born near Connellsville, Fayette County, May 26, 1842. He was attending the old Monongalia Academy at Morgantown in 1861 when the outbreak of the Civil war caused him to return to his home in Pennsylvania. In 1866 he graduated from Washington and Jefferson College in Pennsylvania, and the following year returned to Morgantown with his widowed mother. Here he read law in the offices of Brown and Hagans, and after admission to the bar remained in Morgantown and practiced law here until his death. He early attracted no- tice as a hard working, earnest and thoroughly well in- formed lawyer, and his reputation eventually extended he- yond his home district into many of the courts of the state. In the course of his active career he had some prominent associates. At one time he was a member of the firm Willey and Moreland. later of Hagans and More- land, and subsequently formed a partnership with S. F. Glasscock and for several years the firm was Moreland and Glasscock. Later Judge Moreland was associated with his son in the firm of Moreland and Moreland, and finally was head of the firm of Moreland, Moreland and Guy. Judge Moreland frequently referred to his partnership with the distinguished West Virginia statesman, Hon. Waitman Wil- ley, from 1873 to 1884, as a relationship of the greatest personal congeniality as well as professional success. Dur- ing his long and successful career Judge Moreland handled some of the most notable cases in the records of the local courts. Under all circumstances he was regarded as a worthy opponent by the ablest lawyers with whom he was associated, and many times he gained the admiration of the bar for his adroit handling of a case that he accepted only from a sense of professional duty and that could add noth- ing to his reputation or his purse.

Judge Moreland passed his seventieth birthday still ac- tive as a lawyer and giving little evidence of failing abil- ity. He continued at work until his death in 1913. Out-

HISTORY OF WEST VIRGINIA

side of his profession he was not a seeker of public hon- ors, but public responsibilities naturally attach themselves to a man of his character and standing as a lawyer. For a long number of years he gave Morgantown an efficient administration as mayor, and for a number of terms was on the City Council. In 1887 he was appointed to fill an unexpired term as prosecuting attorney. He frequently was appointed special judge, and in 1882 Governor Jack- son appointed him a member of the Board of Regents of the University of West Virginia. His interest in educa- tion and the welfare of the University made the duties of this office particularly attractive to him, and he capably served the University as Regent for many years.

Judge Moreland was a member of the Sons of the Amer- ican Revolution, was affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Delta Tau Delta college fraternity, and had numerous other relations with professional, civic and social bodies. He was public spirited and charitable, and was many times sought as an advisor and leader in move- ments affecting the public weal. Personally Judge More- land was unassuming in manner, sincere in friendship, steadfast and unswerving in his loyalty to the highest ideals emplar of some of the finest qualities that distinguish the of character. A host of friends regarded him as an ex- citizen in both his public and private relationships.

From his personal friendships and home life he undoubt- edly derived his chief happiness, regarding these always as the durable satisfactions of life. On October 26, 1875, Judge Moreland married Miss Mary E. Brown, daughter of Thomas and Eleanor Suter (Smith) Brown. Her pa- ternal grandfather, James Brown, was an Irishmau who came to America about the close of the Revolutionary war. Her maternal grandfather, Alexander Smith, was a prom- inent banker and merchant of Georgetown, Maryland, later the District of Columbia. Thomas Brown, father of Mrs. Moreland, was a lawyer hy profession, and practiced with his brother William G. Brown at Kingwood, West Vir- ginia. William G. Brown at one time was a member of Congress from West Virginia. Mrs. Moreland possessed many personal qualities and charms that enriched the life of her home and the many friendships that flourished there. Her death in 1910 was widely mourned. Judge and Mrs. Moreland had two children. The daughter, Eleanor Brown Moreland, born May 31, 1877, is a teacher of science in the Elkins High School.

The son, James Rogers Moreland, who has taken for his guide the honorable example of his father, was born at Morgantown December 9, 1879. He was educated in the public schools, the West Virginia University, where he graduated A. B. in 1901, and the following year received his law degree. Admitted to the bar in June, 1902, he was for over ten years an active associate with his father in practice, first in the firm of Moreland and Moreland and then in that of Moreland, Moreland and Guy, and since the death of Judge Moreland he and the other sur- viving partner, Mr. Robert E. Guy, continue their asso- ciation. This firm has a large and important practice, and the members of the firm are accounted among the leaders of the bar of Monongalia County. While his chief ambi- tion is to acquit himself creditably in the law, Mr. More- land has acted from a sense of public duty and for some years was a member of the City Council of Morgantown, and in 1914 enjoyed the unique honor of being elected as a democrat to the House of Delegates from Monongalia County. He was the first democrat elected on the county ticket of Monongalia County since 1876.

In addition to his law practice Mr. Moreland bas a num- ber of business and financial interests, being a director of the Bank of the Monongahela Valley of Morgantown, as was his father before him, and is otherwise largely in- terested in the coal development and business interests of the community. He is a member of the Monongalia County Bar Association, the West Virginia State Bar Association, and has served three times as president of the West Vir- ginia State Society of the Sons of the Revolution. He is a member of the Kappa Alpha college fraternity, Inde- pendent Order of Odd Fellows and the Rotary Club of Morgantown. He is an elder in the Presbyterian Church,

superintendent of its Sunday school and for two years president of the Monongalia County Sunday School As ciation.

September 1, 1904, Mr. Moreland married Miss Ethel Finnicum, daughter of Albert D. and Sarah (Lyle) Fir cum, of Hopedale, Harrison County, Ohio. Four child have been born to their marriage: Joseph Albert, bo August 11, 1907; James Rogers, Jr., born May 10, 19. William Alexander, born April 21, 1916; and Robert L. born February 6, 1921.

Mrs. Moreland takes a great interest in social, edu tional and political problems. She is at present a meml of the West Virginia Child Welfare Commission, cha man of the Department of Applied Education of the W Virginia Federation of Women's Clubs, chairman of Child Welfare Department of the West Virginia Leag of Women Voters and vice chairman in charge of women's work of the Democratic State Executive Comn tee of West Virginia.

ROBERT GILLESPIE DAKAN has developed at Rost Rock, Marshall County, a large and prosperous gene merchandise business, in which he is now associated w his sons Joseph E. and George B., under the firm name R. G. Dakan & Sons. Mr. Dakan was born at Glen East. this county, November 3, 1861, and is a son of John M. s Eliza (Terrell) Dakan, the latter's father, Amos Terr having been an influential citizen of his day in Pleasa Valley, Marshall County. John M. Dakan passed his ent life in Marshall County and was eighty-two years of age the time of his death. His father, William Dakan, ca from Pennsylvania and became a pioneer settler in Marsl County, the Terrells likewise having come from the Keystone State, and the wife of Amos Terrell having hec) member of the old and prominent Braddock family of Per sylvania. Amos Terrell reclaimed and developed one the excellent farms of Marshall County, and was one of 1. expert hunters of wild game in this section in the early da he having died at the age of seventy-eight years. John Dakan learned and followed the carpenter's trade, and la he engaged in farm enterprise, besides conducting a genel store at Rosbys Rock. For a number of years he co ducted a hotel at Weston, Lewis County, and he passed 1 closing years of his life in the home of his son Robert . of this sketch, his wife having preceded him to eternal r' hy about three years and having been ahout eighty ye' of age at the time of her death. John M. Dakan was left orphan in early youth, and he depended upon his own sources in making his way in the world. He was a man sterling character and ever commanded unqualified popu esteem. Of his children eight attained to years of maturi and of the number two sons and four daughters are living 1921, the elder of the two sons being Joshua, a resident Limestone, Marshall County.

Robert G. Dakan gained his early education in the comm schools of his native county and as a boy began to ass in his father's store. In 1878 he went with his parents Weston, and there he assisted in his father's hotel until 188 when he returned to Rosbys Rock and became clerk in t general store of William Lutes, whose daughter he lat married. He has continued his active association with t. mercantile business at this place during the long interveni years, and now has the distinction of being the oldest me chant on the Fourth Division of the Baltimore & Ohio Ra road, between Wheeling and Grafton. In 1882, when M Dakan purchased the business of his father-in-law, his w one of three stores at Rosbys Rock, the other two havi been conducted by S. J. Elliott and L. G. Martin, both the other stores having eventually been purchased by M Dakan, who consolidated the stocks of goods with that his original establishment. He has been a successful buy and shipper of grain and live stock, besides which he associated with Mr. Cox, of Cameron, in the buying and shi ping of wool upon an extensive scale, the firm having shipp more than 300,000 pounds in the season of 1921, and average annual expenditure for wool being $100,000. F. several years Mr. Dakan was a member of the firm of Dak & Sivert, which conducted a store at Moundsville. T

HISTORY OF WEST VIRGINIA

mercantile trade of R. G. Dakan & Sons at Rosbys Rock has grown to large volume and extends over a wide radius of country tributary to this thriving village. The two sons were admitted to partnership in 1917. Mr. Dakan has been prominent in the local councils of the democratic party, and was his party's nominee for sheriff of the county, but was un- able to overcome the large republican majority. For the past twenty years he has served as delegate to the state conventions of his party in West Virginia.

At the age of twenty-one years Mr. Dakan married Miss Elizabeth J. Lutes, and of their four children the eldest son, Henry G., died at the age of thirty-two years, he having had active charge of his father's farm at the time, and his widow and four sons being still on the farm, the sons being Harold, Robert, Lawrence and Howard. Bessie, eldest of the children, is the wife of C. E. Bonar, of Lisbon, Ohio; and Joseph E. and George B. are partners in their father's mercantile business. Joseph E. married Rhea Gorby, and they have one son, Joseph E., Jr. George B. married Miss Eliza Kull, and they have one son, George Bruce, Jr.

John A. GRIER, M. D. While for a quarter of a century he has been ever responsive to the heavy demands made upon his time and energy in his profession as a physician and surgeon, Dr. Grier has contrived time to serve the com- munity of Sistersville in various relationships that involve the performance of duty with scarcely proportionate honor and insignificant financial reward.

Doctor Grier has an interesting relation to the name and founding of Sistersville. His grandmother was Delilah Wells, who was born and spent all her life at Sistersville. She and her sister Sarah owned two adjoining farms, on which was laid out the town of Sistersville, named in their honor. Delilah Wells married Robert Grier, a native of Pennsyl- vania, where his family was established in Colonial times on coming from Scotland. Robert Grier moved to Mouroe County, Ohio, when a comparatively young man, was a farmer, and later one of the first merchants at Sistersville, where he also owned and operated a grist mill. He and his wife reared five sons and one daughter, all now deceased.

Prather Grier, father of Doctor Grier, was born in Monroe County, Ohio, in 1834, and as a young man removed to Parkersburg, where he married. He owned a large amount of land in the river bottoms near Parkersburg, and made farming his chief vocation. He died at Parkersburg in 1883. In politics he was a democrat and was an influential member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. Prather Grier married Sarah West, who was born in Monroe County, Ohio, in 1834 and died at Parkersburg in 1884. She was one of the most zealous members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, at Parkersburg. She became the mother of four children: Mary, who died at the age of thirty-six, wife of Frank Clark, who is a farmer in West Virginia, opposite Racine, Ohio; Charles W., in the real estate and automobile business at Roswell, New Mexico; Dr. John A .; and Frank C., who died at the age of twenty.

John A. Grier was born on his father's farm in Wood County, near Parkersburg, February 26, 1870. He attended the public schools of his native county, spent one year in the Morgantown preparatory school, and in 1892 graduated Bachelor of Science from West Virginia University. He received his M. D. degree in 1894 from the College of Physi- cians and Surgeons at Baltimore, and has since gone back to Baltimore a number of times for post-graduate courses and clinical experience. While in university he was a mem- ber of the Phi Kappa Psi college fraternity. Doctor Grier began practice at Ravenswood, West Virginia, but in 1896 located at Sistersville, where for many years he has had an exceptionally heavy practice in medicine and surgery. His offices are in the Review Building on Wells Street. Doctor Grier for the past eight years has been health officer of Sistersville, served four years as coroner of Tyler County, and for twelve years has had a prominent part in the educa- tional advancement of the community, serving as president of the Sistersville School Board and is president of the Sisters- ville School and Public Library.

Doctor Grier is a democrat, is past master of Phoenix Lodge No. 73, A. F. and A. M., past high priest of Sistersville Chapter No. 27, R. A. M., and is a thirty-second degree

Scottish Rite Mason in West Virginia Consistory No. 1 at Wheeling, and is a member of Nemesis Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Parkersburg. He is president of the Masonic Temple Association at Sistersville. Doctor Grier, who has never married, is a member of the Tyler County, West Vir- ginia State and American Medical Associations, the Sisters- ville Country Club, and during the war was interested in all the drives, and spent much time instructing Red Cross classes.

EZBAI W. TALBOTT has been a river man nearly all his active life, had steamboat runs over all the great rivers of the Mississippi basin, but for a number of years past has been permanently located at Sistersville, where he is proprietor of the Wharfboat.

Mr. Talbott was born in Missouri, but is a member of an old family of the Upper Ohio Valley. His grandfather, Richard Talbott, was born in Brooke County, West Virginia, and spent most of his life there, having a farm. He died at Proctor, West Virginia. Richard Hardesty Talbott, father of E. W. Talbott, was born in Brooke County in 1824, was reared there, established his home in Wellsburg as a young man, and became a steamboat official. In 1848 he removed to Pike County, Missouri, near the Mississippi River, and owned a large farm there. In 1866 he returned to West Virginia, established his home in Marshall County on a farm, and in 1866 moved to the vicinity of Sistersville, buying a farm across the river in Monroe County, Ohio. He lived on this farm until his death in 1883. He was a democrat in politics and a member of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. Richard H. Talbott married Mary Wells, who was born at Wells Bottom in Marshall County, West Virginia, in 1834, and died at Sistersville in 1908. She was the mother of eight children: Rolla, a farmer who died in Pike County, Missouri, at the age of thirty-two; Charles P., who died on the homestead farm in Monroe County, Ohio, at the age of fifty-three; John R., a farmer at North Jackson, Ohio; Ezbai W .; Frank M., now living on the old homestead in Monroe County; Dora Virginia, wife of Frank D. McCoy, a retired merchant at Sistersville; Mary, who became the wife of George Durham, for many years a cashier of the Tyler County Bank of Sistersville, and who died at Garden City, New York, where his widow still lives; and Lucian Hardesty, owner and operator of a public garage at Sistersville.

Ezbai W. Talbott was born in Pike County, Missouri October 29, 1860, and was six years of age when the family returned to West Virginia. He attended the public schools of Sistersville, Duff's Business College in Pittsburgh, and the high school at New Martinsville, West Virginia. Leaving school at the age of twenty-one, Mr. Talbott became a mate on steamboats plying on the Ohio, Mississippi and Missouri rivers, and later took out papers as a captain. For many years he was on the river as a steamboat man, well known in river transportation circles, but most of the time kept his home at Sistersville, though he also lived at other places along the river. In 1908 Mr. Talbott bought the Wharfboat at Sistersville, and this has been his chief interest ever since. He also became part owner and manager of the Sistersville Ferry Company, owning the ferry between Sistersville and Fly, Ohio, and he is still financially interested in this company. Mr. Talbott is a director of the First-Tyler Bank & Trust Company of Sistersville.

A well thought of and public spirited citizen, he was a member of the Sistersville City Council six years. He votes as a democrat, is a member of the Knights of Pythias, and owns one of the modern homes of the town, at 419 Wells Street.

In 1897, in Monroe County, Ohio, Mr. Talbott married Miss Nettie May Witten, daughter of James and Frances (Bridgeman) Witten, now deceased. Her father was one of the famous river pilots of his day, and conducted a number of the well known river steamers up and down the Ohio and Mississippi from Pittsburgh to New Orleans. Mr. and Mrs. Talbott have two daughters, Mary Frances, wife of Sam Fisher, part owner of the Paden City Glass Company and a resident of New Martinsville, and Miss Camilla, who grad- uated from a college at Jenkinstown, Pennsylvania.

HISTORY OF WEST VIRGINIA

SAM HISSAM is one of the older residents of the Sistersville community. In early life he was a teacher in Tyler County, then in the railway mail service, until oil development on his farm gave him private interests requiring his supervision. Mr. Hissam is still an oil producer and active farmer, and has shared in the public responsibilities of the county and is now postmaster of Sistersville.

The Hissam family is of English ancestry and has been in America since Colonial times. His grandfather, Thomas Hissam, was a native of Westmoreland County, Pennsyl- vania, where he grew up, learned the trade of shoemaker but also followed farming. In Westmoreland County he married a Miss White, who was born on the ocean during a four months voyage while her parents were coming from Ireland. Shortly after his marriage Thomas Hissam moved to Tyler County, West Virginia, and lived out his life here as a farmer and worker at his trade. His son, William Hissam, was born in Tyler County in 1824, and spent all his life as an industrious farmer and was one of the respected members of his community. He died in 1907. He was a democrat and a leader in the Christian Church. His first wife was Elizabeth Weekly, who was born in Tyler County in 1834 and died in 1906. His second wife was Frances Malson, a native and life-long resident of Tyler County, and they reared a family of five children. Elizabeth Weekly Hissam was the mother of five children: Elijah C., a farmer who died at Coryopolis, Pennsylvania, in 1919, at the age of sixty-three; Samantha, who died at East Liverpool, Ohio, wife of Sam Winning, a cooper by trade, who died at Sisters- ville; Margaret, who died at Cornwallis in Ritchie County, West Virginia, in 1879, wife of Harvey M. Weekly, a farmer still living in Ritchie County; Harvey B., employed in a rubber factory in Akron, Ohio; and Sam.

Sam Hissam was born on a farm a mile south of Sisters- ville October 5, 1865, and secured his early advantages in the rural schools, attended several summer normal schools at Sistersville and Middlebourne, and at the age of twenty- one was given his first opportunity to teach in a district school in Tyler County. Altogether he taught seven terms of country school, for one term was principal of the Middle- bourne graded school, and another term was teacher of the grammar room at Sistersville. After passing the civil service examination Mr. Hissam in 1895 was appointed a substitute in the railway mail service, in 1896 was given his first regular appointment, and turned over his school to the then county superintendent, Thomas P. Hill, who finished out the term. Mr. Hill is now an attorney at Middlebourne. Mr. Hissam's first assignment was on the run between Wheeling and Garrett, Indiana, but two years later he was transferred to the Pittsburgh and Kenova Railway post office, and was on this run until he resigned May 25, 1907.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 3, Part 11

Author: Publication date: Publisher: Number of Pages:

Author:
Publication date:
Publisher:
Number of Pages: