History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 3, Part 114

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John Benjamin Wyatt has lived at Shinnston since h father located in that town in 1890. He acquired a con mon school education there, spent three years in the li erary department of West Virginia University, and con pleted his university law course in 1910. After bein admitted to the bar Mr. Wyatt practiced three years Fairmont, and since then has had his office at Shinnsto:

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Besides looking after his general practice as a lawyer he takes an active part in republican politics, was for one term mayor of Shinnston, and in 1920 was elected to the House of Delegates. Mr. Wyatt is a Master Mason and Knight of Pythias and a member of the Methodist Church.

In 1914 he married Miss Jane Westfall, of Fairmont. They have a son, John Benjamin, Jr.

DANIEL R. WHITTAKER, store manager and purchasing agent for the Crozer Coal & Coke Company at Elkhorn, Mc- Dowell County, is one of the efficient and popular executive employes of this important industrial corporation. He was born in Giles County, Virginia, on the 4th of March, 1875, and is a son of George and Matilda (Shimalt) Whittaker, both natives of Virginia and representatives of families there established in an early day. George Whittaker has long held prestige as one of the successful farmers and mer- chants of Giles County, and is one of the sterling and influential citizens of his community.

In 1896 Daniel R. Whittaker graduated from the high school at Giles, Virginia, and within a short time thereafter he hecame a clerk in the McQuail general store at Ennis, McDowell County, West Virginia. Later he was made man- ager of this store, and in 1913 he severed this connection and took the position of manager of the large and well- equipped general store of the Crozer Coal & Coke Company. He has given most effective administration in this position, and the business has been specially successful under his vigorous and progressive management.

Mr. Whittaker is a democrat, he and his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and he is a Knight Templar Mason, besides being affiliated with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.

September 17, 1898, recorded the marriage of Mr. Whit- taker and Miss Elizabeth Saumbers, daughter of Alvin and Lavelett (Miller) Saumbers, natives of Virginia, in which state the father became a representative farmer near Paris- burg. Mr. and Mrs. Whittaker have one son, Julian, who is married and who is now his father's assistant in the store. Julian Whittaker was a student in the Virginia Military Institute at Staunton at the time when the nation became involved in the World war. He entered the Officers' Train- ing Camp at Camp Lee, Virginia, and had been stationed there about five months when the armistice brought the war to a close.

PHILIP HAGER, state senator from the Fifth District, and proprietor of one of the best mercantile establishments in the county, is one of the leading men of Hamlin, and a natural leader of men. Quiet and unassuming in manner, he is so sincere and thoroughgoing that he gains the confidence of bis associates almost without effort, impressing all with whom he comes into contact as being a very safe man. He was born February 23, 1872, a son of Philip and Elizabeth (Dalton) Hager, natives of Boone County, West Virginia, and Taxwell County, Virginia, respectively. The grand- father bore the name of John M. Hager, and the father and great-grandfather bore the name of Philip. They settled on an island near the present site of Logantown, cutting the first timber in that part of West Virginia. The family orig- inated in Virginia, and was established in this country prior to the American Revolution.

The father was a Baptist minister for fifty years, and died February 12, 1917. During his ministry he had churches at points in Southern Ohio, Eastern Kentucky, Tennessee and West Virginia. During the war between the North and the South he served in Company D, Thirty- sixth Virginia Cavalry, C. S. A., and served for three and one-half years. He was wounded in battle at Bluntsville, Tennessee, and lost some of the bone of his leg as a result of the injury, but recovered the use of that limb. After leaving the service be resumed his ministerial duties.

Senator Hager attended the common schools of Lincoln County. He took a course in civil engineering and survey- ing, at Columbus, Ohio, under a special instructor, and then followed this work for several years, doing a great deal of land surveying, and acting as county road engineer for

Lincoln County from 1909 to 1913, inclusive, and during this period he became interested in the timber and lumber business. Since 1913 he has been occupied with operating sawmills and handling lumber in the southern part of Lin- coln County and in Logan County. In May, 1921, he opened a mercantile establishment at Hamlin, in which he is doing a large business. During nearly all of his career he has been a notary public and at one time was secretary of the school board for the Harts Creek District of Lincoln County. In November, 1920, he was elected to the Upper House of the State Assembly, and is gaining considerable prestige in this office.

On July 12, 1894, Mr. Hager married in Lincoln County Sarah A. Ferrell, who died May 10, 1902. She was a daughter of James P. and Alminie (Toney) Ferrell, farming people. Senator and Mrs. Hager became the parents of the following children: Madge M., who married R. L. Adkins, a contractor and builder of Lincoln County, was appointed postmistress of Hamlin, and is one of the best officials the city has ever possessed; Pearl married J. A. Vickers, super- intendent of the Holden High School of Holden, West Vir- ginia; and Ida G. and Elizabeth Edna are both at home. Senator Hager is an earnest member of the Baptist Church. He is a Chapter and Knight Templar Mason, and also belongs to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. For years he has been one of the leading republicans of this section, and he was nominated without opposition and elected by the largest majority ever given a candidate in the Fifth Senatorial District. His election to office on his straight party ticket was but a just reward for his efforts in behalf of his constituents and his energetic actions look. ing toward the improvement of Lincoln County.

EDGAR B. GIBSON is a superintendent of the Logan Chilton Coal Company on the Guyandotte River near Henlawson in Logan County. Well versed in all the details of mine de- velopment and operation, he first became a factor in the mine industry as an electrician and electrical engineer. Practically all his working experience bas been with the Leckie interests in West Virginia.

Mr. Gibson was born at Cooper in Mercer County, West Virginia, August 25, 1889, son of William B. and Lou E. (Butterworth) Gibson, the former a native of Washington County, Tennessee, and the latter of Campbell County, Vir- ginia. The mother is still living on the old homestead farm at Watauga, Tennessee. William B. Gibson, who died February 5, 1922, at the age of sixty-four, spent a number of years in the coal mines of the Tug River District of West Virginia, chiefly at Elkhorn, where he was in the service of the Pocahontas Consolidated Fuel Company in all the varied positions from track layer to superintendent. He finally left the mines to return to his farm in Washington County, Tennessee. He was a republican, a Baptist and an Odd Fellow. All of his five sons at some time were con- nected with the coal mining industry: A. J., now a farmer at Princeton in Mercer County, spent twenty years with the Pocahontas Fuel Company and other mines; C. C. was killed by accident while with the Tidewater Coal and Coke Com- pany as hoisting engineer; C. S., a farmer at Princeton, was formerly associated with the Tidewater Coal Company, Bottom Creek Coal Company and other mines; and M. P., a resident of Princeton.

Edgar B. Gibson attended a seminary near his old home in Washington County, Tennessee. His training in electrical engineering was gained by a practical course of apprentice- ship and instruction at the Jeffrey Manufacturing Com- pany's plant in Columbus, Ohio. He has been an electrical engineer for twelve years. His first work was in the mines at Leckie on Tug River in McDowell County as a hoisting engineer. He spent six years at Leckie, and was chief electrician when he left there. His next location was at Aflex in Pike County, Kentucky, on the Tug River, where for two years he was electrician and assistant superinten- dent. For three years he was chief electrician at Fireco in Raleigh County, at the same place during the succeeding year was superintendent of Leckie Mine No. 3. Then, in May, 1921, he came to Logan County for the purpose of

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opening the Logan Chilton Mine, and all its equipment was installed under his supervision. He also opened mines at Aflex and Leckie No. 3.

In 1915 Mr. Gibson married Viola V. Phipps, daughter of Herbert Phipps, of Sullivan County, Tennessee. Their two children are Helen and Alma. Mrs. Gibson is a Presby- terian. He is a democrat, and is affiliated with the Knights of Pythias and Elks.

CLARENCE D. HOWARD, of Cowen, Webster County, has been identified with the lumber business since his early youth, he and his brother, C. T. Howard, being owners of the Smoot Lumber Company, with main office at Cowen. The mills are located at Arcola, this county. He is also a director of the First National Bank of Cowen, and is one of the progressive and substantial business men and repre- sentative citizens of the county.

Mr. Howard was born in Preston Connty, West Virginia, September 12, 1865, and is a son of Thomas D. and Mary S. (Holt) Howard, both likewise natives of Preston County, where the respective families were founded in the pioneer days. Thomas D. Howard was educated in the common schools at Independence, Preston County, and at the time of the Civil war he showed his loyalty to the Union canse hy enlisting in Company I, Sixth West Virginia Volunteer Infantry, with which he served until the close of the war. After the war he engaged in Inmbering operations near Newburg, Preston County, and with this important line of industrial enterprise he continned his association until his death, when his two sons succeeded him, both being still actively identified with the lumber business at the present time. Mr. Howard's Iumbering operations included de- velopment work in the vicinity of Grafton, Taylor County, and while a resident of that city he served as its mayor. He was an ardent advocate and supporter of the principles of the republican party and was affiliated with the Grand Army of the Republic. Of the three children Clarence D., of this review, is the eldest; Charles T. likewise is engaged in the lumber business; and Nellie is the wife of J. B. Hess, of Cowen.

Clarence D. Howard gained his carlier education in the schools of Taylor County, and for one year was a student in Simpson College at Indianola, Iowa. He became actively associated with the lumber business when he was nineteen years of age, and his career in this line of enterprise has been one of continuous success to the present time.

He and his wife are zealous members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, at Cowen, and he is serving on its official board. He is affiliated with Glade Lodge No. 205, Knights of Pythias, at Cowen, and is one of the leaders in the coun- cils and campaign activities of the republican party in Webster County. He was an alternate delegate to the Re- publican National Convention at Chicago when Hon. Charles E. Hughes, the present national secretary of state, was nominated for the presidency.

August 12, 1896, recorded the marriage of Mr. Howard and Miss Audree Ford, of Taylor County, she being a gradu- ate of the West Virginia Wesleyan College at Buckhannon, of which school Mr. Howard has been a trustee for a number of years. Mr. and Mrs. Howard became the parents of five children : Edna, who since her graduation at the West Virginia Wesleyan College, her mother's alma mater, has been a teacher in the Cowen High School; Agnes died at the age of seventeen years; Helen is, in 1922, a student in Wesleyan College; Harry F. is attending the Staunton Military Academy at Staunton, Virginia, and Elsie is at- tending the public schools of Cowen.

GEORGE E. SUTHERLAND, manager of the Kanawha Land Company, is a member of a family that has played a con- spicuous part in the development of Charleston and the adjacent Kanawha Valley for eighty years. He represents the first native generation of the family, both his father and grandfather, each of whom hore the Christian name James, having been born in Scotland.

James Sutherland, Sr., brought his family to the United States about 1840 and settled on the Kanawha River, two

miles above Charleston, in Kanawha County. He estab- lished the first foundry in that region, at what is now Kanawha City. Its chief product was furnaces and other machinery, and especial equipment for the salt mines in that vicinity. Salt mining was then the foremost industry of the valley. James Sutherland, Jr., who was brought to America in infancy, after reaching manhood engaged in similar enterprises. On one occasion, while drilling for salt at Big Chimney on the Elk River, he struck oil. This was one of the first recorded discoveries of oil in West Virginia.

George E. Sutherland, who was born and reared in Charleston, acquiring his education in the schools of that city, has found many practical enterprises in which to engage his time and talents. For several years past he has been in the general insurance business as a member of the firm Gallaher & Sutherland, conducting one of the larg- est general insurance agencies in the state. He is also vice president of the Kanawha County Bank and is vice president and general manager of the Standard Brick & Supply Company, brick manufacturers and dealers in build- ing supplies.

The Kanawha Land Company, of which he is secretary and manager and of which former Governor William A. MacCorkle is president, has been the corporation through which the primary impulse was directed for the development of South Charleston. This development since the beginning of the World war has resulted in one of the most prosperous and attractive industrial cities of West Virginia. The lead- ing institution of South Charleston is the naval armor plant of the Government.

Mr. Sutherland has been active in the firm of Gallagher & Sutherland since it was established in 1912, and prior to that for about ten years was trust officer of the Kanawha Banking & Trust Company. He is a former director of the Charleston Chamber of Commerce, served several years as a member of the city council, and is chairman of the board of deacons of the First Presbyterian Church. Mr. Suther- land is married and has four children, named Margaret, Edwin, William A. and Anne Elizabeth.

LEONIDAS HAMMAN KELLY, former United States dis- trict attorney for the Southern District of West Virginia, has been engaged in his profession nearly thirty years, and his experience as a lawyer has always been accompanied with such forcefulness of character that account for his leadership in the bar of the state. His career as a lawyer has been steady and of substantial merit, whether as an attorney for an individual client or as prosecutor for the Federal Government. He is careful, clear-headed, syste- matic and thorough in his work, prepares his cases carefully and without undue haste, and has a record of many most effective and vigorous prosecutions. His history as a citizen and as a lawyer is a record of manliness in every detail.

Mr. Kelly was born at Sutton in Braxton County, Janu- ary 28, 1871, son of John McH. and Alzira Virginia (Ham- man) Kelly. He acquired his early education in the public schools of his native county, and in 1887, at the age of six- teen, he was at Charleston as mailing and banking page of the Senate. In 1893 he graduated LL. B. from Wash- ington and Lee University at Lexington, Virginia, and several of his classmates are now prominent in Charleston, including Capt. S. B. Avis, Herbert Fitzpatrick, Jake Fisher and Wells Goodykoontz. Mr. Kelly was deputy circuit and county clerk of Braxton County, was mayor of Sutton, and for four years was prosecuting attorney, at which time he exhibited his qualifications as a strong and vigorous admin- istrator of this office. He has been a member of the law firm Hines & Kelly at Sutton since 1894. He was mayor of Sutton in 1896, and his term as prosecuting attorney was from 1897 to 1900, inclusive.

In 1916 Mr. Kelly was appointed assistant United States attorney for the Southern District of West Virginia, and in the official work of that position he moved his head- quarters to Charleston, though he retained his residence at Sutton. In 1917, by appointment of President Wilson, he was advanced to the office of United States district attorney, and served from October, 1917, until January 31, 1922. Mr.

THOMAS LAZZELL |1,

MARY PRUDENCE POPE LAZZELL

6.6 Suzel

Rufus J. Lazell.

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Kelly in 1914 became secretary of the Democratic State Executive Committee of West Virginia. He was grand naster workman of the Ancient Order of United Workmen n 1910-12, and is now a member of the law committee of he Supreme Lodge.

Prior to the conclusion of his term as district attorney, Ir. Kelly was appointed attorney for the Law and Order League of Kanawha County, and from January 1, 1922, has evoted practically his entire time to this office. The Law nd Order League of Kanawha County was organized in Charleston in the fall of 1921 for the purpose of combatting nd prosecuting crime and disorder of every nature in the ounty. It was brought into being through the necessities f the times, and was organized and is sponsored by the est and most substantial citizens. It was his highly spe- ialized attainments as district attorney that caused Mr. Celly to be considered as the one best fitted for the work f attorney and prosecutor for the organization. He has Iways been outspoken in his advocacy of civic righteous- ess and the maintenance of law and order. Commenting pon his selection, John B. White, superintendent of the aw and Order League, said: "Mr. Kelly has been a igorous prosecutor and is regarded as one of the ablest iwyers of this part of the state. He is a man of wonderful nergy and one whose integrity is unquestionable. Since Mr. elly came to this city several years ago his entire time has een occupied with the arduous duties of the United States istrict attorney's office, and as a result he is not identified ith any particular interests or class in Kanawha County ad is on this account particularly acceptable to those tizens of Kanawha County desiring a vigorous enforcement E the laws without fear or favor. His long and varied xperience as prosecuting officer both as prosecuting attor- ey of Braxton County and then as assistant district at- orney and district attorney for the United States for five ars render him especially well qualified for this position s chief counsel for the league in co-operation with the unty and state authorities."

Mr. Kelly is a member of the Presbyterian Church and affiliated with the Masonic Order and Knights of Pythias. arch 3. 1897, he married Miss Bertha Gorrell, of Sutton, ho died in 1904. On June 19, 1907, he married Nellie iddy, of Buckhannon, West Virginia. Mr. Kelly has the allowing named children: Robert G., born April 30, 1889, tended West Virginia University, and also Washington id Lee University, spent two years in France and is now king his second year of the law course in the University West Virginia; Janet, born April 10. 1900, graduated om Goucher College at Baltimore, in 1922; Virginia, horn arch 5, 1910, now a student in the Public schools of harleston, to which city Mr. Kelly removed in November, 121.

RUFUS FENTON LAZZELL. The Lazzell family in Mon- galia County dates back to the period immediately follow- g the close of the Revolutionary war. The first Lazzell is an itinerant Methodist minister as well as a farmer. griculture and stock raising have claimed the energies of i the subsequent generations, though several of the name ve achieved prominence in the professions and public rvice.

The name is of French origin. Geoffrey de Lascelles ed in the twelfth century, left his home in Normandy d went to live in England, and was probably the ances- r of the English branch of the family.

In 1647 John Lasell came to Hingham, Massachusetts, om Lincolnshire, England, and he and his wife, Eliza- th Gates. are the ancestors of the Lazzell family in merica. The name appears in fourteen different forms spelling.

Thomas Lazzell, the ancestor of the family in West Vir- nia, was born in Massachusetts in 1753 or 1754 and mar- ed there about 1775 Hannah Beck, who was also born Massachusetts, in 1757. They settled in Cass District Monongalia County, at a time when Indians were hos- e, and when every condition was that of the savage ontier. He was tireless and devoted as a Methodist min- er, and performed his work in the midst of obstacles Vol. III-41

and dangers, and became widely known through all the Scottish settlements of the Upper Monongahela Valley.

Their son, Thomas Lazzell, II, was born in Cass Dis- triet in 1787 and died in 1867, at the age of eighty. He was a man of great energy, and was known for his won- derful leadership and versatility. He made a success of farming, stock raising and merchandising, and came to own 1,800 acres of land, which later was discovered to be underlaid with heavy veins of coal. He was a class leader and steward in the Methodist Episcopal Church. In poli- ties he was a whig and later a republican, voting for Lincoln in 1860. In 1810 he married Rebecca Bowlby, daughter of James Bowlby and Lydia (Carhart) Bowlby, who were also pioneers in Cass District, coming from Sus- sex County, New Jersey.

One of the ten children of Thomas and Rebecca Lazzell was Cornelius Carhart, who was born in Cass District in 1829, and died on the farm where he was born in 1908. Farming and stock raising claimed the energies of his active years. He was a man who believed in and demon- strated in a broad sense the philosophy of economy, and was known for his generosity, especially to those less for- tunate than himself. In politics he was a republican, and . he was an active member of the Methodist Church.

In 1857 he married Mary Prudence Pope, who was born iu Monongalia County in 1841. She was the daughter of Colmore and Elizabeth (McVicker) Pope, and a descendant of Lieut .- Col. Nathaniel Pope, one of the first colonists of Virginia. Mrs. Lazzell died in 1891. She was a woman of marked ability and refinement. Their home was the center of hospitality in that community. The children of their marriage were: Rebecca E., deceased, wife of John W. Hall; Colmore Thomas, of Morgantown, who married Etta Ridgway; Carrie C .. wife of James A. Comley, of Morgantown; Rufus F .; Ulysses Grant, who lives on the old homestead in Cass District, and who married Maude Jones; Mollie J., wife of Ulysses J. Courtney, of Morgan- town; Flora C., who died in 1893, at the age of twenty- one; Nora Vella, wife of A. W. Bowlby, of Morgantown; Myrtle Matilda, wife of W. I. Reed, of Morgantown; Nettie Blanche, an artist, who now lives at Provincetown, Massachusetts; and Bessie Belle, wife of Arlie Ridgway, of Morgantown.

Rufus Fenton Lazzell represents the fourth generation of the family in West Virginia. He was born on the old homestead in Cass District, near Maidsville, February 20, 1864. He is of pure Colonial descent, having ancestors among the officers and soldiers of all the early wars. As a boy he attended the public free schools and for a time he was a student at West Virginia University, where he showed great ability in mathematics, but as time went on his love for the freedom and independence of country life led him back to his father's farm before graduating. But soon his mathematical mind was working on real problems which paved the way for the future. The traits that have always distinguished the family are strong characteristics in Mr. Lazzell: Tenacity, perseverance, temperance and an unlimited energy, which have led to his success. On the other hand. we find in him a keen sense for beauty, a refinement, and a love for home. As a young man he engaged independently in the livestock business and farm- ing, and he has never departed altogether from agricul- tural pursuits. He still does an extensive business in the raising. buying and selling of livestock.

In 1897 he took up dealing in coal properties, buying acreage coal land. In the meantime his interests have accumulated so as to justify his friends and associates in referring to him as a capitalist. Since 1900, Mr. Lazzell has had his home in Morgantown, where he owns a beau- tiful residence and other city property.

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History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 3, Part 114

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