History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 3, Part 110

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Mr. Felker has had a deep interest in public affair throughout his active career, and has served as delegati to numerous county, district and state conventions of the democratic party and for ten years was chairman of the county committee.

GRANT GRAHAM for over twenty years has conducted a place of business as a druggist that is a source of pride to all the people of Belington. He is a licensed pharma cist, thoroughly knows the business as well as the profes sion, and has found most congenial associations in thi: thriving town of Barbour County.

The census shows that more than four-fifths of the population of West Virginia is native born, and Mr. Grahan is no exception. His family have lived in the limits of the present state for considerably more than a century. H. was born near Kingwood in Preston County, May 31, 1867 His grandfather, Samuel Graham, was probably a native of Preston County, spent his active life as a farmer, and died about 1880, when past four score years. His children were: James; David, who was a farmer in Presto County; John, who died while a Union soldier in the Civil war; Rosanna, who married Nicholas Posten; Lucinda whose husband was Richard Field; Jemimab, whose las husband was Peter Hartlet; and Mrs. Groves.

James Graham, father of the Belington business man was born in Preston County, August 8, 1825. and died at Reedsville November 16, 1910. He acquired a libera education for his day, and for some years was a teacher During the Civil war he enlisted in the Union army, il Company B of the Fourteenth West Virginia Regiment and served until the close of the struggle, participating in many of the engagements and skirmishes of Old Vir ginia. One wound received in battle afflicted him al through his subsequent life. He manifested no interest il soldiers' organizations, and did not even become a mem ber of the G. A. R. He was a Presbyterian, a staunc] republican and served on the local School Board and i other capacities in his community. James Graham mar ried Miss Nancy Field, who was born in Preston County

I. n. Wilkinson

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October 10, 1823, and died January 19, 1910. Her father, Hiram Field, was of English ancestry and a farmer. James Graham and wife reared three sons and two dangh- ters: Joseph, a farmer in Preston County; Sanford, cashier of the Traders National Bank of Buckhannon; Grant; Rebecca, who died as Mrs. A. J. DeBerry; and Jennie, wife of A. J. Barker, of Morgantown, West Virginia.

Grant Graham grew up on his father'e farm, and his best advantages were acquired in the common schools and in the school of "hard knocks." Being the youngest son, he failed to acquire as good an education as his older brothers. At the age of sixteen he was earning wages as a farm hand, and subsequently worked on a saw mill and for two years with a drilling outfit, drilling water wells. With a moderate capital acquired through a number of years of industry, he established a drug business at Kingwood, and while hiring a pharmacist he diligently studied the profession and passed the State Board exami- nation January 24, 1899. With his license as a pharmacist he came to Belington the same year and took over the only business of that kind in the little city. Since then two efforts have been made to share in the drug trade of this locality, but the competition soon faded out, and ulti- mately he occupied the whole field. He conducted his early stores in some of the old buildings of the town, but in 1913 erected a two-story brick building, which is now the home of his Rexall Store. He carries the drug equipment of the Rexall system, itself the highest guaranty of ex- cellence and quality, and in addition he has store equip- ment and facilities that would do credit to a city much larger than Belington. He keeps his store in a spotless condition and in perfect order and system.

Mr. Graham has served as a member of the City Council at Belington. He is a director of the Citizens National Bank, and has voted at every National election for a republican candidate for president since first support- ing Benjamin Harrison. He is a Presbyterian, while Mrs. Graham is a Methodist, and fraternally is affiliated with the Masonic Lodge, Scottish Rite Consistory and Shrine, has filled the chairs in the Subordinate and En- campment Degrees of Odd Fellowship and has sat in the Grand Lodge many times.

At Buckhannon June 28, 1899, Mr. Graham married Miss Etta Hinkle, a native of Upshur County and daugh- ter of Arch and Columbia Hinkle. She was educated in the common schools. Her oldest sister. Ida, was the late Mrs. I. R. Post, of Buckhannon. Mr. and Mrs. Graham had no children of their own, but they took as a child Mrs. Graham's niece, Pearl Post, who has grown up under their care and in their companionship and finished her education in the Wesleyan College at Buckhannon, graduat- ing in 1919. This training was supplemented by study elsewhere, and she is one of the very successful teachers in the state.

WILLIAM JACKSON COONTZ has found satisfaction for ambitions to be both useful and successful in the trade and business of carpenter and builder, an occupation in which his father also excelled. Mr. Coontz is one of the honored residents of Belington, and has done some of the most distinctive work in his line in that section of Barhour County.

He represents an old family of West Virginia, his great- grandfather having been the pioneer of the name in the western region of old Virginia. His father is the ven- erable Samuel Morgan Dallas Coontz, who was born in Barbour County, and as a youth had only the advantages of the subscription schools. His inclination for study enabled him to realize a great deal of value ont of that limited education. He sympathized with the South in its contest for independence, but did not serve in the Confederate army, although he was in Virginia during the war. After the war he took up the work of his life, that of carpenter and millwright, and some of the milla he built still stand, including the Johnny Booth Mill on the head waters of Mill Run, several mills on the waters of Laurel and Sugar Creek and the mill at Nestor- ville on Teter Creek. He did his work chiefly in Taylor,

Barbonr and Randolph counties, and continued his labors with his favorite tools until recent years. Now, at the age of seventy-eight, he is living in comfortable retire- ment at Belington. He is a democrat, but never took a serious interest in politics beyond voting for good men for office. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. He is one of the occasional self made men who can express themselves in public, and he has proved an entertaining and instructive talker before an audience as well as in general conversation.

Samuel M. D. Coontz married Isabel F. Poe, who was born in Taylor County, December 14, 1851, daughter of William D. and Mary (Davis) Pos. Her father was horn, reared and spent his life in Taylor County, dying at his farm home on a hill overlooking Grafton. His father was Jonathan Bore Poe of German ancestry and also a West Virginia farmer. Samuel Coontz and wife had five chil- dren: Zura May, who died in Barbour County, wife of Frank Moore; Amanda, who lives in .Belington, wife of Riley Moore; William J .; A. Thayer, of Akron, Ohio; and Grover C., of Belington.

William Jackson Coontz was born on a hill overlooking the City of Grafton, August 24, 1877, but a short time after his birth his parents moved to Barbour County, and he grew up near Belington. He attended the free schools there, and as a youth learned his trade from his father, beginning at the age of fourteen and working as apprentice and journeyman under his father until he was twenty-two. At that time he yielded to an ambi- tion to see something of his own country, and he went to the Pacific Coast, going out by the Southwestern ronte, and spent three years in San Francisco in the employ of the United Railroads, a street car corporation. While in San Francisco he learned the sensation of being in an earthquake. and one year in the month of February there were twenty-eight shocks, as many as four occurring in one day. When he left California he returned by way of the Northwestern States, and soon after reaching home he married and built a residence near Belington and re- sumed work at his trade. Mr. Coontz has contributed much to the development and growth of Belington, and also the surrounding country. He has constructed some of the tipples at the coal mines in this vicinity. Among conspicuous examples of his work as a building contractor are the residences of John W. Coontz. William Hill and Charley Kittle, the Lambert Chappel Church and the Shockey and Laurel Hill school houses.

Mr. Coontz is also a painting contractor and has lent beauty to the town through this art as well as through his organization of carpentering. He was also the fore- man in laying the base course over part of the Morgan- town and Fairmont road improvement and the Fairmont- Beverly Pike. In March, 1922, Mr. Coontz was elected a member of the Belington Council, as representative of the First Ward. He is a democrat, casting his first presiden- tial vote for Judge Parker.

Mr. Coontz and family are members of the Methodist Church. South, and he is a member of both branches of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Rebekahs.

In Barbour County, September 30, 1905, he married Miss Nettie J. Sturm. daughter of Henry J. and Frances (Pol- ing) Sturm. Her mother was a daughter of Abraham Poling, a Confederate soldier and member of one of the real pioneer families in this section of West Virginia. Mrs. Coontz, who was born June 6, 1885, third in a fam- ily of twelve children. acquired a liberal education in the public schools. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Coontz are: Clark R., Maxine, Josephine and Arline.

JASPER N. WILKINSON. After a busy career marked by successful and worthy achievement Mr. Wilkinson is now living virtually retired at Bridgeport, Harrison County. He was born on a farm not far distant from the vil- lage in which he now resides, and the date of his nativity was January 22. 1841. He is a son of Jesse and Mary Ann (Preston) Wilkinson, the former of whom was born in Virginia and the latter in Allegany County, Maryland. The family was founded in Virginia in the Colonial period

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of our national history, and the maternal grandfather of the subject of this sketch was a patriot soldier in the War of the Revolution. Jesse H. Wilkinson was one of the successful early farmers of Harrison County, and continued to reside on his homestead farm near Bridgeport until his death. His widow passed the closing period of her life in the home of their only daughter, Sarah A., in Knox County, Missouri. In the family were four sons.

Jasper N. Wilkinson was reared on the old home farm, early began to assist in its work, and he continued to attend local schools at intervals until he was twenty years of age, when, in 1861, he went to Morgantown and became a student in Monongalia Academy, of which Professor J. R. Moore was the principal. In 1865 Mr. Wilkinson graduated from this institution, with the degree of Civil Engineer, and thereafter he passed about one month in Iowa, whither he went to visit in the home of his aunt, Mrs. Rebecca Hansel, in Clayton County. He next made his way to Arcola, Douglas County, Illinois, where he found employ- ment in the line of his profession and did surveying work of important order. In Illinois he aided in the defining of the section lines of Grand Prairie in Moultrie County, which borders Douglas County on the west. It is interest- ing to record that at that time land in that section of Illinois could be purchased at prices ranging from $1.25 to $2.50 an acre. In the autumn of 1865 Mr. Wilkinson returned to his native county, and for the ensuing three years he assisted his father on the home farm. In 1868 he engaged in the general merchandise business at Bridge- port, and he successfully continued this enterprise until 1874, when he sold out. In 1870 he had been elected county engineer, an office of which he continued the efficient incumbent four years and then was re-elected for a second term of equal duration. After his retirement from this office he served four years as deputy county engineer under T. Moore Jackson, and he then became associated with J. N. Camden as civil engineer, and had charge of the running of all of the lines on the coal lands owned and controlled by Mr. Camden, said lands lying on both sides of the river and running back three miles.

In the autumn of 1888 Mr. Wilkinson became civil engi- neer for the South Pennsylvania Oil Company of Pitts- burgh, and in 1890 this corporation gave him assignment as superintendent of its operations in the West Virginia District, where he had supervision of the company's title rights and other matters pertaining to its land holdings in this state. In this connection he did a large amount of important and responsible executive and technical serv- ice, and he continued his alliance with the company for a term of years. In 1910 Mr. Wilkinson was placed in charge of the Hope Gas Company, and this position he retained until 1913, when ill health compelled his retirement. Dur- ing these years of consecutive and well ordered activity in his profession Mr. Wilkinson did not neglect extraneous opportunities for forwarding his individual prosperity. He made judicious investments, and these today mark him as a man of substantial financial status. He owns and occu- pies one of the beautiful residences of Bridgeport, the same commanding a fine view of the surrounding country, and here he is enjoying the peace and prosperity that prop- erly crown his former years of earnest endeavor. He is aligned loyally in the ranks of the democratic party, has been affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows since the year 1865, and he holds membership also in the Knights of Pythias. His religious faith is that of the Presbyterian Church, and his wife is a member of the Baptist Church.

April 30, 1868, recorded the marriage of Mr. Wilkinson and Miss Anna Barbee Heflin, of Bridgeport, and in con- clusion of this review is given brief record concerning their children: Guy C., who was born June 1, 1871, succeeded his father as superintendent of the Hope Gas Company and retained this position until his death, December 11, 1915, he having been a bachelor and having been one of the popular and representative business men of this sec- tion of his native state. Mary Bessie, who was born July 1, 1873, died on the 13th of February, 1909. She became the wife of Dr. C. L. Lyon, and after her death her only

child, Helen, then six years of age, was taken into the home of the maternal grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Wil- kinson, with whom she has since remained, she being now a student in the University of West Virginia. Anna Heflin, who was born July 15, 1875, became the wife of Wilbur Gaines, of Salem, this state, and they now reside at Bridge- port. Nellie Virginia was born November 8, 1878, and her death occurred March 8, 1908. Irma N., who was born September 24, 1881, is the wife of Leroy H. Martin, a mem- ber of the firm of Martin Brothers of Haywood, Harrison County. Lucy E., who was born August 2, 1884, remains at the parental home. All of the children were afforded the best of educational advantages.

JAMES E. FORNEY has been a resident of West Vir- ginia for thirty years, and his work and business in the construction trades of bricklaying and masonry have many visible evidences in and around Belington, his home town. That community long since learned to appreciate his worth and value as a citizen.

Mr. Forney was born in Allegheny County, Pennsyl- vania, May 10, 1864. His father, Alfred A. Forney, was born on Double Pike Creek, Carroll County, Maryland, left there when a young man having learned the trade of blacksmith, and followed that occupation in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, during the Civil war, in which one of his brothers participated as a Union soldier. He subse- quently moved to Beaver County, Pennsylvania, and about middle age he devoted his time to farming. He died in 1914, at the age of eighty-four. His wife was Martha Johnson, who was born in Allegheny County, daughter of James and Mary (Parks) Johnson. She died in 1896, when about fifty-nine years of age. They were Presby- terians, and in politics Alfred Forney was a republican. Their children were: Mary, wife of I. U. Campbell, of Erin, Tennessee; George, who died unmarried in Pittsburgh; James E .; Annie, deceased wife of Henry Ruckhart, of Beaver County; Miss Lillian; Will, who died in Beaver County ; and Calvin, of Lawton, Oklahoma.

James E. Forney grew up at Sandy Creek in Beaver County, acquired a public school education near Freedom, and was with his father until he was about twenty years of age. He learned the trade of brick layer with W. W. Rickard of Blairsville, Pennsylvania, remaining with him two years, the following summer was an employe of the Lisenring Coal Company, owned by Frick and Company, for about a year was with the Cochrin and Brown Coal Company in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, and for another year with J. W. Rainey. Then, in 1892, he came to West Virginia and established himself in Belington,

In his business Mr. Forney has performed a long and interesting service in brick, stone and concrete work. His first work of consequence was at Dartmore, where he helped construct the coke oven, and ahout that time he sct down the foundation for a store in front of the Luzerne Hotel in Belington, then the hotel foundation itself, and the foundation for the Methodist Church. When he first came to Belington only three houses stood on the west side of the Tygart Valley River, and he has been a factor in the mason and concrete work in the development of that side of the town. He also did brick work on the chim- neys for the houses in Coalton and at Elkins.

As a public spirited citizen Mr. Forney has been a mem- ber of Belington Council several times and a member of the Board of Education. He is a republican, having cast his first ballot for James G. Blaine in 1884. His family are Missionary Baptists.

In Barbour County, July 8, 1894, Mr. Forney married Miss Grace Day, who was born in Barbour County, Sep- tember 16, 1876, daughter of Daniel Webster and Martha (Wilson) Day. Her mother was a daughter of W. P. Wilson. Daniel W. Day was born in Barbour County, as was his wife, and he was a farmer. The three children of Mr., and Mrs. Day are-Orestes, of Belington; Mrs. Forney; and Scott Day, who lives near Fairmont.

Mr. and Mrs. Forney have reared an interesting family of children, named Cecil Alfred, Wilbur Orestes, Beulah, Ruth, Ralph, Wilson, George (who died at the age of

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eighteen months) and Lena. The son Cecil, who now lives at Middletown, Ohio, married Edna Sipe. He went overseas with the air-craft machine gun battalion from Camp Lee, Virginia, and lay between the front lines and the heavy artillery of the American Troops shooting down enemy airplanes. His only injury was gassing. His command returned to the United States in May, 1919, and he was discharged at Camp Dix, New Jersey. The son Wilbur Orestes, who lives at Belington was in the last draft of the World war. He first responded to the Government's request for an operation was in the Crozier Hospital at Chester, Pennsylvania, four and one-half months, and finally recovered his health and strength sufficiently to be accepted, but the armistice was signed about that time. The daughter Beulah is now a student in Shenandoah Collegiate Institute at Dayton, Virginia, while the younger children are attending the local schools.

THOMAS W. HARRISON has given a good account of his active years as a prosperous and progressive farmer of Lewis County, still owns a farm, but is now practically retired and enjoys the comforts of a good town home at Weston.

He was born at Weston August 15, 1854, son of Mathew W. and Sarah L. (Hoffman) Harrison, his father born in Clarksburg in 1825 and his mother at Weston in 1828. Mathew Harrison was reared and educated in Clarksburg, stndied for the law, and for many years practiced his profession in Weston. He was also vice president of the National Exchange Bank and was treasurer of the State Hospital at Weston from 1856 until he resigned a short time before his death. He was also treasurer and pay- master of the Baltimore & Ohio Railway. He was con- sidered one of the wealthy men of the county and left a large estate. He was a democrat and served in the Legislature one term. His wife was a member of the Episcopal Church. These parents had seven children, and the five now living are: Thomas W .; Mary, wife of A. A. Warren; R. H., a farmer at Weston; Emma, wife of James Ralston; Anna M., wife of E. G. Davisson,

Thomas W. Harrison grew up at Weston, attended the public schools there, had a good business training under his father, and while identified to some extent with com- mercial lines his main work has been farming.

On April 22, 1890, he married Genevieve Ralston, who was born at Weston July 11, 1867, daughter of Er and Matilda (Bailey ) Ralston. Mrs. Harrison was educated in Weston in private schools, and attended a musical con- servatory at Warren, Ohio.

After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Harrison moved to a farm two miles east of Weston, and lived in the country until 1918, when they returned to Weston. Mr. Harrison had a place of 451 acres, but has since sold part of it and uses the remainder chiefly for the grazing of cattle. He has been an interested worker in the demo- cratic party of the county, and at one time was nominee for the County Court. He is affiliated with the Ancient Order of United Workmen, the Modern Woodmen of America and Weston Lodge No. 43, Knights of Pythias. He and his wife belong to the Episcopal Church.

They are the parents of a family of ten children, nine living. Ernestine R. was educated by private tutor and is now superintendent of the West Virginia Children's Home at Elkins. Mary M. is the wife of Dr. John Owens, an army surgeon; Mathew W., a graduate of the Weston High School, enlisted and served as a private during the World war, going overseas with the Eighty-third Division, and later heing assigned to the Third Division and was on front line duty for three months, being wounded in the Argonne Forest. He is now a student of agriculture iu the West Virginia State University. Eva E. is a graduate of the Weston High School and of the Mountain State Business College at Parkersburg. The younger children are: Genevieve, a graduate of the Weston High School; Thomas W., Jr., also a graduate of the Weston High School; William R., deceased; Sallie, in the senior class; Fannie E., in the sophomore class in High School; and Gertrude in the seventh grade of the grammar school.

HON. WILLIAM JANES, several times mayor of the City of Philippi, is an able lawyer and business man, whose activities have had much to do with the exploitation of the material resources of the state. He is of English an- cestry, but is the direct descendant of a young Englishman who fought on the side of the colonists in the struggle for independence, and the family has been in West Vir- ginia for over a century.

His Revolutionary ancestor was his great-grandfather, John Janes, who was horn in Staffordshire, England, ahont 1752, and as a young man came to America. He enlisted from Pennsylvania for the War of the Revolution, and was with the American troops when General Cornwallis sur- rendered to General Washington at Yorktown in 1781, that being the concluding act of the war. John Janes lived for many years in Barbour County, West Virginia, and is believed to be the only soldier of the Revolution buried there. He died in 1842, since in that year he drew his last pension from the Government as a soldier. He was about ninety years of age when he died.

His son, Alexander Janes, was a stone mason, and ex- amples of his work were on the bridge abutment on the Parkersburg and Staunton Pike and across Greenbrier River and the steps and the foundation of the old Court House of Randolph County at Beverly. These old steps are still in use. He spent his last days at Moatsville in Barbour County, where he is buried. Alexander Janes married Louisa Casteel, of the Casteel family of Preston County. Their children were: William, who retained the old English spelling of the name Jennings, and was a prominent resident of Preston County and a member of the County Court; Noah Janes, whose record follows: Thomas Janes; Nancy, who became the wife of George Nestor; Maria, who married James Isner; Margaret, who was the wife of A. J. Cline; Alice, who married Winfield Cox; and Calore, wife of Edward Freeman.

Noah J. Janes, father of Mayor Janes of Philippi, was born in Barbour County, in Cove District, February 19, 1849, and spent his active life as a farmer and lumber- man. He acquired a common school education, was elected as president of the Board of Education of Cove District, and spent his last days at Fox Hall in Pleasant District, where he died August 13, 1911, at the age of sixty-two. He was a republican. He was distinguished by certain strong traits of character, he dealt in nothing but the truth, despised shams and camouflage, but in spite of the strength of his convictions was reasonable in his rela- tions with all men. Noah Janes married Catherine England, daughter of Archibald England. She died December 6, 1889, being the mother of William and Ida B., the latter the wife of T. E. Phillips, of Fox Hall, West Virginia.

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History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 3, Part 110

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