History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 3, Part 121

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Alexander G. Strickler acquired a public school educa- tion at Ellenboro, and as a youth went into the store with his father and eventually became proprietor of the busi- ness. He has a large stock of general merchandise and conducts one of the best appointed stores in Ritchie County.

On October 16, 1901, Mr. Strickler married Miss Lena Pierpoint. She is a high school graduate. They have two children: Lenore, horn October 6, 1902, and Holtis, born April 26, 1904, both graduates of the Pennsboro High School. The family are members of the Methodist Prot- estant Church, and Mr. Strickler is one of the trustees. He is a past master of Ellenboro Lodge No. 50, F. and A. M., a past high priest of the Royal Arch Chapter at Pennshoro, a member of the Knight Templar Commandery and is a past worthy patron while Mrs. Strickler is a past worthy matron of the Eastern Star Chapter. He is also a past chancellor of the Knights of Pythias. In politics Mr. Strickler is a democrat. Besides his mercantile busi- ness he is a stockholder in the Farmers and Merchants Bank of Pennsboro, and is owner of considerable real estate in Clay District of Ritchie County.

HON. CHARLES GORDON COFFMAN, who is engaged in the practice of his profession in the City of Clarksburg, Har- rison County, is not only one of the representative mem- bers of the bar of his native county but also a scion of an old and honored family of this county. He was born on his father's farm in Harrison County, August 30, 1875, and is a son of John Marshall and Cornelia J. (Swiger) Coffman, both of whom likewise were born and reared in this county, where they passed their entire lives, secure

in the high regard of all who knew them. The father died at the age of sixty-two and the mother at the age of sixty- eight years, both having been earnest members of the Baptist Church. John Marshall Coffman served as a loyal young soldier of the Union in the Civil war; and in politics he was a stanch supporter of the principles of the republican party. He long held prestige as one of the substantial and progressive agriculturists and stockgrowers of his native county and was influential in community af- fairs. His parents, John G. and Achsah (Boggers) Coff- man, passed their entire lives in Harrison County, the former having been a son of Henry Coffman, who was born and reared at Smithfield, near Uniontown, Pennsyl- vania, where his father settled upon immigrating to Amer- ica from his native Germany. Henry Coffman was a pioneer settler in what is now Harrison County, West Vir- ginia, and contributed his quota to the civic and indus- trial development of this section of the state. Here, about the year 1805, was solemnized his marriage to Miss Eliza- beth Robinson, whose father had served as a major in the Continental line in the war of the Revolution and who became one of the very early settlers in what is now Har- rison County, West Virginia. Mrs. Cornelia J. (Swiger) Coffman was a daughter of Lemnel Swiger, the Swiger family being one of the oldest in Harrison County, where many representatives of the name still reside.

Charles G. Coffman, one of a family of four children, early began to assist in the work of the home farm, and that he made good use of the advantages afforded in the, public schools of the locality is indicated by the fact that at the age of seventeen years he became a successful teacher in the rural schools. For six years he continued alternately to teach and attend school, and in 1898 he graduated from Salem College with the degree of Bachelor of Science. He defrayed his own expenses while attend- ing this institution, as did he thereafter while completing his course in the law department of the University of. West Virginia, from which he received his degree of Bachelor of Laws in 1904. He was soon afterward ad- mitted to the bar of his native state and initiated his pro- fessional career by opening an office at Clarksburg. Here he soon developed a remunerative practice, and here he has continued his successful activities as one of the able, and representative members of the Harrison County bar.

Mr. Coffman has been active and influential in the local councils and campaign activities of the republican party, and he was its candidate for mayor of Clarksburg in the election of 1906, but was defeated. In 1908 hc was elected to the State Senate, in which he served one term and made a record of loyal support of the interests of his constituent district and of wise legislation in gen. eral. From 1904 to 1906 Mr. Coffman was chairman of the republican committee of Harrison County, and from 1916 to 1918, inclusive, he was secretary of the Republicar State Central Committee of West Virginia, in which office he showed marked finesse in directing the political forces at his command in the presidential campaign of that year Mr. Coffman has served continuously since 1905 as & commissioner of chancery for Harrison County, and 01 the 20th of February, 1922, he was appointed assistant United States District Attorney for the Northern District of West Virginia. He is affiliated with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the Independent Order of Odc Fellows, the Delta Tau Delta college fraternity and the Masonic fraternity, in which last he has received the thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite and is also & member of the Mystic Shrine.

October 14, 1909, Mr. Coffman wedded Miss Alma Earl Haymaker, daughter of Frank B. and Florence G. (Gray' Haymaker, of Harrison County. The two children of thi union are Frank Haymaker Coffman and Julia Gray Coff man. Mr. and Mrs. Coffman are members of the Methodis Church.

WILLIAM W. HUME, M. D. A physician who began his work in Raleigh County twenty years ago, Doctor Hume in recen years has withdrawn from general practice and is nov a widely known and acknowledged specialist in eye, ea

Charles & Ofwar.

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ose and throat diseases at Beckley, and in that field rep- sents some of the highest abilities available in this section : the state.

Doctor Hume was born in Orange County, Virginia, Sep- mber 21, 1866. He represents a long line of Virginia icestors, the first of the name coming to this country in 517. Another branch of the family included the famons coteh historian and philosopher, David Hume. The par- its of Doctor Hume were Dr. Charles E. and Mary E. Thompson) Hume, natives of Virginia. His father made r himself a place of prominence in his profession. He as in the Confederate army during the Civil war, and treated both Union and Confederate soldiers in his pro- essional capacity. His home was in the path of both "mies, and the soldiers took everything valuable from the lace. After the war Dr. Charles Hume settled in Cul- eper County, and he and his wife are now deceased.

William W. Hume acquired his early education in the ommon schools of Culpeper County, and he had to de- end on himself for his higher education. For seven years was engaged in the drug business at Hinton, West Vir- inia, and left there to begin the study of medicine in the niversity of Virginia at Charlottesville, where he gradu- ted M. D. in 1901. For four years he did a general country raetice in Raleigh County, and then moved to Beekley, nd a few years later he began his preparation for his oceial line of work. During 1914 Doetor Hume was a udent of diseases of the nose and throat in the Philadel- hia Polyelinie, and took eye and ear courses in the Wills 'ye Hospital at Philadelphia. After his return to Beek- y he limited his practice to eye, ear, nose and throat. during the war lie was a member of the Examining Board. Joetor Hume now has associated with him in practice r. J. H. Hoskins, a nephew of Mrs. Hume.

Doetor Hoskins was horn April 22, 1892, in Essex County, irginia, son of W. D. and Ella Hoskins, and during the World war he was commissioned first lieutenant in the Med- al Corps, April 10, 1918. He was on duty three weeks t Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia, and then transferred to the lase Hospital at Camp Raritan, Metuchen, New Jersey, here he received his honorable discharge January 20, 919. Doctor Hume and Doctor Hoskins are both mem- ers of the surgical staff of the Kings Daughters Hospital f Beckley.

In 1903, in Essex County, Virginia, Doetor Hume married azelle Hundley, daughter of John T. and Sallie (Garnett) fundley, natives of Virginia. Her father was an educator nd a soldier in the Civil war. Doctor Hume and wife ave no children of their own, but for a number of years ave been deeply interested in the welfare and progress of er sister's children, including Doctor Hoskins. They dopted two of the daughters, Beverly Hoskins Hume and Mathilda Hoskins Hume. Doetor Hume is a member of the christian Church, is a Royal Arch and Knight Templar Jason and Shriner, votes as a democrat, and is a member f the County and State Medical associations. He and his amily live in the finest home at Beekley.

ROBERT M. FRENCH has earned real distinction in the maneial life of Raleigh County. Throughout his active manhood he has been in the service of the oldest bank of he county, the Bank of Raleigh, and is now eashier of hat institution, which ranks among the strongest banks in his section of the state.

Mr. Freneh was horn at Logan, West Virginia, December 7, 1888, son of Millard F. and Ellen (Wilburn) French, oth natives of Virginia. His ancestors were soldiers in the 'evolution, and his grandfather was Henderson French, a armer and blacksmith. Millard F. French was a physician, nd practiced a number of years at Logan and later at Beckley, where he died in 1908. He was an elder in the Christian Church and a member of the Independent Order f Odd Fellows. The mother is still living at Beckley.

Robert M. Freneb as a boy attended the common schools t Logan, graduated in 1907 from the State Normal School t Athens, and also spent two years in West Virginia Uni- ersity at Morgantown. About the elose of his university areer Mr. French entered the Bank of Raleigh as book-

keeper. Two years later he was advanced to assistant cashier, a post he held six years, and sinee then has been cashier, and for eight years has been one of the bank directors. The Bank of Raleigh was established in 1899, and its stockholders and directors have included many of the most substantial men of Raleigh County. During the World war Mr. French was connected with all the bond drives in Raleigh County.

At Athens, West Virginia, in 1912, he married Hattie L. Vermillion, daughter of S. I. and Rhoda (Bird) Vermil- lion, natives of West Virginia. ller mother is now de- ecased. Her father is a surviving Confederate veteran who served with the Virginia Regiment of Cavalry, and among other battles was at Gettysburg. He followed farming as his aetive vocation. Mr. and Mrs. French have two children, Robert M., Jr., and Elizabeth Aun. The family are mem- bers of the Christian Church, and he is a Royal Arch Mason, a Knight of Pythias and a member of the Rotary Club.

WILLIAM N. MACTAGGART. Though he has been an American all these years he can remember, William N. Mac- Taggart was born in Scotland, and he has some of the pro- nounced Seoteli characteristics. He is conservative, is a man of forceful character, and his associates esteem his judgment and experience as the last resort in practically every matter connected with coal operation and mining engineering. Mr. MacTaggart is the local superintendent and engineer in charge of the vast properties of the Beaver Coal Company, with headquarters at Beckley in Raleigh County.

He was born in the City of Glasgow, January 29, 1868, son of John and Mary (Neilson) MacTaggart. His parents came to the United States about 1870. His father while in Scotland was an accountant for coal mining companies, but in the United States he took up mining as a practical voca- tion, and was a mine foreman and superintendent, spending one year at Sharon, Pennsylvania, and then removed to the eoal district around Jeansville, Pennsylvania. He was killed in a mine accident there in 1881.

William N. MacTaggart attended the common schools of Jeansville, and was only eight years of age when he did his first work at a coal mine, pieking slate. This was night work, and he continued to attend school during the day. At the age of eleven he was made trapper and driver, and then successively was employed as trackman, dug coal as a practical miner, served as foreman and superintendent, and with increasing experience in all phases of eoal min- ing he felt the need of a better education, and for two years he pursued an academie course in Grove City College in Western Pennsylvania. Following that he seenred a position as rodman with an engineering company, and after mastering the fundamentals of engineering he was made chainman and then transit man. For three years he was in the service of the Lehigh Valley Coal Company as a mining engineer at Hazelton, Pennsylvania. In 1899 he came to West Virginia as mining engineer for the Fair- mont Coal Company, and was in the service of this eorpo- ration four years.

During a period of almost twenty years since then, Mr. MacTaggart has had his headquarters at Beekley, where he has been superintendent for the Beaver Coal Company. He looks after the property of the company, comprising 50,000 acres of coal and timber lands, producing on the average 3,000,000 tons of coal annually, besides lumber. There are twenty coal companies operating under lease from the Beaver Company. These operating companies are the Raleigh, the Beckley, the Slab Fork, the Sullivan, the E. E. White Coal and Coke Company, the Gulf Smokeless Coal Company, the Bailey-Wood Coal Company, the Pember- ton, the MeAlpin, the Gulf Coal Company, the Elkhorn Piney Mining Company, Pemberton Fuel Company, Piney Creek Coal Company, Douglas Coal Company, Bowyer Smokeless Coal Company, Ragland Coal Company, Summit Coal Company, Viacova Coal Company, Beard Coal and Coke Company and Battleship Coal Company.

In 1896, at Jeansville, Pennsylvania, Mr. MacTaggart married Bertha Hamer, daughter of William and Bertha

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Hamer. Her father was in the coal business in Pennsyl- vania. The five children of their marriage are Paul, Jean (deceased), lsabel, Margaret and Bertha.

The Beaver Company donated the site at Beckley for the new hospital known as the Kings Daughters Hos- pital of Beckley. Mr. MacTaggart is a Presbyterian, is a member of the Kiwanis Club and is president of the Beck- ley Club.

JOHN B. CLIFTON. One of the youngest coal operators in Raleigh County, John B. Clifton as a boy took up rail- roading, spent several years in growing responsibilities in the railroad service, and had the expert qualifications as a traffic man when he turned to the coal industry. It has been his fortune to associate with prominent men, and among them he is regarded as one of the coming leaders in the coal industry of West Virginia.

Mr. Clifton was born at Ridgeway, Montgomery County, Virginia, July 27, 1891, son of James W. and Mary K. (Kelley) Clifton, both natives of Virginia, and his father a farmer. He is of English ancestry. John B. Clifton attended the common schools of Montgomery County until he was sixteen years of age, then learned telegraphy, and his first assignment of duty was as an operator on the Nor- folk & Western. He served with that road from 1907 until 1910, and then became general operator for the Vir- ginia Railway, his duties taking him all over the line. Beginning in 1912, he acted as car distributor for the road, but resigned in 1915 to go into the coal business on the Stone Coal Branch of the Chesapeake & Ohio. At that time he became part owner of the Beckley Smokeless Coal Company. He sold his interest in that organization in 1919, and since then has helped organize and has been active as a business representative and as a member of pro- ducing and sales companies operating in the Raleigh County field. These include the Raleigh Smokeless Coal Company, Guyan Collieries Company, Wilton Smokeless Coal Company, Wood-Peck Fuel Company, Red Ash Coal Com- pany. Mr. Clifton also has interests in South America, the Raleigh Smokeless Fuel Company maintaining an office at Rio Janeiro, Brazil.

In 1914, at Catlettsburg, Kentucky, he married Miss Nellie King, daughter of Robert and Naomi King, of Beck- ley. Their two children are John B., Jr., and Ruth. Mr. Clifton is a Presbyterian, a member of the Masonic Lodge, the Kiwanis Club and in politics is a democrat.

HUGH JARVIS, vice president of the Union National Bank in the City of Clarksburg, Harrison County, has been one of the two men primarily influential in the upbuilding of this institution, which is one of the most substantial and important in his native county. Mr. Jarvis was born on a farm near Shinnston, this county, December 16, 1870, and is one of a family of seven children born to Lemuel D. and Martha (McCann) Jarvis. The father long held prestige as one of the progressive exponents of agricul- tural and live-stock industry in this section of the state, was influential in public affairs in the community and served as sheriff of the county. He was seventy-seven years of age at the time of his death. His parents were Joseph and Lucy (Beall) Jarvis, and his paternal grand- father was Solomon Jarvis, who came from Maryland and settled in what is now Harrison County, West Virginia, as early as 1788, when this section was little more than a frontier wilderness. The family name has been closely and worthily linked with civic and material development and progress in the county during the long intervening years. Mrs. Martha (McCann) Jarvis still maintains her home at Clarksburg, has been a resident of Harrison County from the time of her birth and is now one of the most venerable and loved native daughters of the county, she being in her eighty-ninth year at the time of this writing, in 1921. Her parents, James and Achsah J. (Price) McCann, were sterling pioneers of the county.

Hugh Jarvis was a mere boy at the time of the family removal from the farm to Clarksburg, the county seat, where he profited fully by the advantages of the public schools. As a youth he entered the employ of the Balti-

more & Ohio Railroad Company, with which he continued in service several years, during the greater part of which he was cashier at the Clarksburg station. Later he re- ceived appointment to the position of deputy clerk of Harrison County, and he initiated his banking career by accepting the position of cashier of the West Union Bank at West Union, Doddridge County. In 1900 he became associated with Paul M. Robinson, of whom individual mention is made on other pages, in organizing and found- ing the People's Banking & Trust Company at Clarksburg, with Mr. Jarvis as cashier. Later Messrs. Jarvis and Robinson became actively concerned in the organization and incorporation of the Union National Bank of Clarks- burg, in 1905, and the new institution absorbed the bugi- ness of the People's Banking & Trust Company and also that of the Traders National Bank of Clarksburg. The consolidation proved a stroke of business expedience and good judgment, as is attested by the solendid success that has attended the Union National Bank, of which both Mr. Jarvis and Mr. Robinson became vice presidents at the time of incorporation. Under their direct and effective management and progressive policies the bank has become one of the largest and strongest financial institutions in Northern West Virginia. In 1912 the bank erected for its own occupancy a handsome and modern office building, known as the Union Bank Building, and the same would be a credit to a city of first metropolitan rank.

Agide from his banking interests Mr. Jarvis is the owner of valuable farm property and is one of the many extensive cattle-growers of Harrison County. He has other capitalistic investments of important order, and takes deep interest in all that concerns the welfare and progress of his home city and native county. In the York, Rite of the Masonic fraternity his maximum affiliation is with the local Commandery of Knights Templar, and he has received the thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite, besides being a member of the Mystic Shrine. He and his wife are active members of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

In the year 1900 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Jarvis and Miss Harriett Maxwell, a daughter of Porter and Columbia C. (Post) Maxwell, and the children of this union are three in number.

THOMAS E. BIBB spent a score of years in the lumber and coal industry, but finally turned all his energies and his capital to merchandising and has built up in the Beck- ley Hardware Company one of the most successful whole- sale organizations in this rich and populous section of the state.

Mr. Bibb was born in Fayette County, West Virginia, in August, 1865. His grandfather Bibb was born and reared in Amherst County, Virginia, moved to West Virginia about 1830, and served in the Civil war. He married a Miss Gatewood, of English ancestry. One of their sons was Rev. Martin Bibb, widely known all over the South as a minister of the Baptist Church. Thomas E. Bibb's par- ents were Benjamin and Mary (Wilson) Bibb, natives of Virginia. His father, who was a farmer and school teacher, served for sixteen years as superintendent of schools of Fayette County, and is still living, at the age of eighty- four.

Thomas E. Bibb acquired all his education in Fayette County, and his father was his chief teacher. He left school at the age of twenty and went to work on the farm, then engaged in the lumber and timber business, and for seventeen years was connected with the coal industry as sales agent at Rush Run and Royal in Raleigh County. He then returned to the lumber industry for three years, and in 1910 located at Beckley and established the Beckley Hardware and Furniture Company. His business is now the largest wholesale house in this great coal district, and there is no larger house nearer than Charleston.

On April 10, 1888, in Fayette County, Mr. Bibb married Ella M. Love, daughter of S. H. and Lucy (Dickerson) Love, both of Fayette County, where her father wae a farmer and school teacher. Mr. and Mrs. Bibb have reared an interesting family. There were six children, Edgar E.,

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Carlyn A., Mildred, James B. and Clarence. Harry is de- ceased. The two sons, Edgar and Carlyn, have become actively associated with their father in business, and both are sterling young business men and citizens of Beckley. Edgar married Ella Campbell, daughter of a former sheriff of Raleigh County. Carlyn, who is unmarried, is road salesman for the Beekley Hardware Company. In October, 1917, he entered Camp Lee for training, was sent for a ime to Oshkosh, Wisconsin, and then returned to Camp Lec, and in June, 1918, went overseas. For six weeks he vas in the Argonne Forest fighting.

Mr. Bibb is a Baptist, is a Royal Arch and Knight Templar Mason and Shriner, and his sons Edgar and Carlyn are also Masons and Shriners. In politics be is a lemoerat. The family are prominent socially in Beckley.

JOHN WYSOR DAVIN is a young man who has won con- ecutive advancement in connection with railroad service, ind is now chairman of the car-allotment commission of he Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad, with official headquarters it the passenger station building of this railway in the City of Huntington. He still resides in the old homestead of the family at Montgomery, Fayette County, where he was born on the 10th of March, 1892.

John Davin, father of him whose name initiates this re- view, was born in Ireland, in 1848, and died at Mont- romery, West Virginia, in 1912. His father, Michael Davin, was born in Ireland, in 1810, and died near Boone- 'ille, Missouri, in 1899. he having immigrated with his fam- ly to the United States about the year 1849, and having become a farmer near Latonia, Kentucky, whence in 1874 te removed to Missouri and settled near Booneville, where ic became a specially successful farmer and where he and tis wife passed the residue of their lives. John Davin vas an infant at the time of the family removal from the Emerald Isle to the United States, and grew to adult age the home farm in Kentucky. He did not go to Missouri with his father, but came to West Virginia and assisted n the construction of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad. Jater he engaged in the coal business at Montgomery as a pioneer operator in the coal fields of that district, and he vas one of the influential citizens and business men of Montgomery at the time of his death. He was a demo- rat in politics. He married Miss Mary E. Montgomery, who was born in Virginia in 1859, and whose death oc- urred at Montgomery, West Virginia, in 1920. Of their hildren the firstborn was Charles Ashley, who died in 881, in infancy; Miss Florence E. remains at the old lome in Montgomery; Harlow A. resides at Logan, this tate, and is an assistant superintendent in the employ of he Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad Company; Lottie is the vife of Dr. Horace H. Smallridge, a representative dentist n the City of Charleston; Annie is the wife of Lon G. Smallridge, a merchant in the City of Tacoma, Washington; John W., of this sketeh, was the next in order of birth; Thomas L. remains in the old home town of Montgomery, nd represents the Bankers Life Insurance Company; and fiss Margaret remains at the old home in that place.

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History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 3, Part 121

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