History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 3, Part 122

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In the public schools of Montgomery Jobn W. Davin cquired his early education, and there also he attended he branch sehool of the University of West Virginia. In 909 he became yard clerk for the Chesapeake & Ohio Rail- oad Company at Handley, Kanawha County, and his abil- ty and effective service eventually led to his promotion to he position of local car distributor in the Kanawha coal istrict. In 1916 he was transferred to Huntington, and ater in the same year was here promoted to the position f chief car distributor. In June, 1919, he resigned this lace and became traffic manager for the Amherst Fuel Company at Lundale, Logan County, but in December of he following year he resigned this post and resumed his lliance with the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad, for which he as since served as chairman of the car allotment commis- ion, with executive headquarters in the City of Huntington.

Mr. Davin takes loyal interest in public affairs and is ndependent in politics. He is affiliated with Coal Valley odge No. 74, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, at fontgomery, where also he is a member of Fayette Lodge

No. 29, Knights of Pythias, besides which he is a member of Charleston Lodge No. 202, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, in the capital city of the state.

STANLEY ERNEST BRADLEY, of Huntington, is assistant division engineer of the State Road Commission of West Virginia, and is giving in this position very effective serv- ice in the connection with the construction and maintenance of good roads in his native state. He is familiarly known by his second rather than his first personal name.

S. Ernest Bradley was born at Nelson, Boone County, West Virginia, February 4, 1888. His father, Samuel E. Bradley, who resides at Madison, that county, was born in Raleigh County in 1863, and is a son of John D. Bradley, who was born in Boone County, June 18, 1833, and died May 13, 1922. He was a retired farmer who passed the major part of his active life in Raleigh County. He was a republican in polities, was a Union veteran of the Civil war, and served in various local offices of publie order. His wife, whose name was Martha Pauley, is also de- ceased.

Samuel E. Bradley was a young man at the time when he established his residence in Boone County, and there he was a school teacher for a number of years. He became a skilled civil engineer, and as such continued in active pro- fessional work until 1893, after which he served as county sheriff of Boone County until 1896. He then became clerk of the Circuit Court for that county, a position which he retained until 1902. Thereafter he was engaged in civil- engineering work until 1912, sinee which year he has been actively engaged in the coal business, as an operator whose mining interests are now of broad scope. He is president of the Madison National Bank, is a republican and has been influential in civic and political affairs in Boone County. He is affiliated with the York Rite bodies of the Masonic fraternity, and in the Seottish Rite has attained the thirty- second degree, besides which be is affiliated with the Mystic Shrine. He served one year as grand patriarch of the West Virginia Grand Encampment of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, in which fraternity he had the distinction of being a representative of the Sovereign Grand Lodge of the World from the Grand Lodge of his home state for two years. He was a member of the first board of directors of the Odd Fellows Home at Elkins, this state. He is a certified member of the American Association of Engineers. and he and his wife are zealous members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.

In Boone County was solemnized the marriage of Samuel E. Bradley and Miss Nannie J. Hunter, who was born in that county in 1864, a daughter of the late Rev. Robert Hunter, who was a clergyman of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and also a successful farmer. His death occurred in 1907. The subject of this review is the younger of the two children of his parents, and his sister, Miss Hattie May, remains at the parental home.

In the rural schools of his native county and the public schools at Madison, the county seat, S. Ernest Bradley acquired his early education, besides which he took special studies during several successive summer seasons. From 1903 to 1908 he attended Marshall College, and he then studied the teebnieal and practical details of civil engineer- ing under the effective preceptorship of his father. In the spring of 1917 he became a coal operator, in which connee- tion he organized and became general manager of the Boone Block Coal Company, with headquarters at Silush, Boone County. In October of the same year he sold his interest in this company and entered the nation's service in con- nection with the World war. As a sergeant of the first class in the aviation service he was stationed at Morrison, Vir- ginia, until February, 1918, when he was transferred to Little Silver. New Jersey. Thence he was transferred to Langley Field in Virginia, and later was again in service at Morrison, that state. In July, 1918, he entered the Offieers' Training School at Camp Lee, Virginia, and in this school, which was transferred to Camp Humphreys, that state, lie was graduated in September, 1918, and given rank as second lieutenant of engineers in the United States Army. He was assigned to duty with troops at Camp

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Humphreys, and in October of the same year was trans- ferred to Camp Leach, Washington, D. C., where he received his honorable discharge November 29, 1918.

Thereafter he was engaged in practice as a civil engineer at Madison in his native county until March 1, 1919, when he received appointment to the position of assistant division engineer with the West Virginia State Roads Com- mission, and was assigned to the Charleston office. On the 1st of the following month he was transferred to Hunting- ton, at the opening of Roads Division No. 2, with head- quarters in this city, where the offices of the commission are in the Robson-Prichard Building.

Mr. Bradley is a republican, he and his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and he holds membership in the Huntington Council of the Gideons, is secretary 'of the local chapter of the American Association of Engineers, and is also a member of Huntington Post No. 16, American Legion. His Masonic affiliations are as here noted: Odell Lodge No. 115, A. F. and A. M., at Madison; Tyrian Chapter No. 13, R. A. M., at Charleston ; Kanawha Commandery No. 9, Knights Templars, in the same city; Feramoz Grotto at Huntington; and Beni- Kedem Temple, Mystic Shrine, at Charleston.

November 29, 1919, recorded the marriage of Mr. Bradley and Miss Ada M. Davis, daughter of Walter and Nannie (Crump) Davis, of Huntington, where the father died in 1907 and where the widowed mother still resides. Mrs. Bradley is a graduate of Marshall College at Huntington, and prior to her marriage she had made a splendid record as a successful teacher in the public schools, her service having been in Kenova, Milton, Logan, and in the city schools of Huntington.

WILLIAM GOFF HOLSWADE is a prominent West Virginia financier and business man, and is founder and treasurer of the Security Savings Company of Huntington, and active in real estate and other lines of business in that city.

He represents one of the older families of West Virginia. His great-great-grandfather Holswade was a German sol- dier under Napoleon in many of the campaigns of the Napoleonic era. He died from the effects of wounds re- ceived in the battle of Austerlitz. His son, Frederick Holswade, was of Alsatian ancestry, was born in a Rhine province of Germany in 1819, and in 1834 came to the United States. He located in Lewis County, West Virginia, and became a successful farmer and stock raiser there. He died at Spencer, West Virginia, in 1876. His wife, Martha Alkire, was born at Janelew, Lewis County, in 1819, and died at Spencer in 1904. John M. Holswade, father of the Huntington business man, was born at Spencer, Angust 13, 1853, and has spent all his life in that community. He acquired an excellent education under private tutors, and during his mature career has given attention to his exten- sive farming interests and for a number of years has been a grower of pure bred Hereford cattle. He is a democrat, a leading member of the Methodist Protestant Church, and a Royal Arch Mason. John M. Holswade married Emma Kate Goff, who was born at Spencer, May 12, 1866, and died at Huntington, January 19, 1914. William Goff is her oldest child. Harry S., who follows in his father's footsteps as a farmer and stock dealer at Spencer, was a captain ip the One Hundred and Fiftieth Infantry, Thirty-eighth Divi- sion, with the American Forces in France, where he spent a year. Alice Isabelle is the wife of Thomas M. Brady, a civil engineer, living at Sistersville, West Virginia.

William Goff Holswade was born at Spencer, Roane County, West Virginia, December 2, 1882. He graduated from the Spencer High School in June, 1901, completed his junior year in West Virginia University at Morgan- town, and in 1905 accepted the opportunity to learn banking as a clerk in the Bank of Spencer. His abilities and diligence were duly rewarded and he was promoted to assist- ant cashier. After leaving the bank in 1907 he served one year as paymaster for the West Virginia and Maryland Gas Company at Cumberland, Maryland. For a short time he was with the Philadelphia Company of Pittsburgh, and then, returning to his native state, he organized at Walton

in Roane County the Poca Valley Bank. He was cashier and active executive officer of this institution for eight years, and is still a director. Mr. Holswade transferred his financial interests and home to Huntington in 1916, when he organized the Security Savings Company, of which he is treasurer. The other executive officers of this company are William R. Thomas, president, and Dan H. Holton, vice president. The company occupies the ground floor of the Holswade Building at 317 Ninth Street. Mr. Holswade is also president of the Holswade Land Company, and he and his cousin, J. Fred Holswade, own jointly the Holswade Building, a seven-story office building, one of the prominent structures of the Huntington business district. Mr. Hols- wade owns a large amount of other real estate in Hunting- ton, including a modern home on Circular Drive, Spring Hill. He is unmarried, is a democrat, is affiliated with Huntington Lodge No. 313, B. P. O. E., and is a member of the Guyandotte Club and the Huntington Country Club.

W. G. WILSON is an attorney by profession, and he car- ried on a prosperous practice as a lawyer at Elkins during ,its village days. A resident of the town and city for over thirty years, he has been a prominent factor in all its growth and progress. He is best known, however, as a banker, and from the inception of the Davis Trust Company more than twenty years ago has been the managing official of that, one of the most prosperous banking and trust companies of the state.

Mr. Wilson was born December 20, 1864, at Fairmont, Marion County, son of Isaac and Harriet ( Wilson) Wilson. His parents had the same family name but were not re- lated before their marriage. They were born, reared and married in Pennsylvania, and soon afterward moved to West Virginia.

W. G. Wilson was one of eight children, and as a boy attended the public schools at Fairmont and later completed his education in the State Normal School. He pursued the study of law for a time in West Virginia University, and left there before completing his course and for three years lived in the western states of Kansas and Colorado, where he was in the real estate business. On returning to West Virginia he resumed the study of law under Judge Mor- row at Fairmont. He was admitted to the bar there in 1889, and in March, 1890, located at Elkins, some ten years he- fore it became the county seat of Randolph County. That period of ten years sufficed to give him a sterling repu- tation as a lawyer and also brought him association with some of the prominent interests in Elkins.

The Davis Trust Company was established in 1901. The first president was United States Senator H. G. Davis The vice president was United States Senator Stephen B Elkins. However both of these distinguished statesmen had little to do with the practical management, which devel- oped upon Mr. W. G. Wilson, who became vice president secretary and treasurer and active manager. The purpose of organizing the Trust Company was to handle the estates of T. B. Davis, Senator H. G. Davis and Senator Elkins These were probably the largest estates ever settled ir West Virginia by any trust company. The company is cap italized at $250,000, pays regular dividends, has accumu lated a surplus of about a quarter of a million and ha! resources of approximately $2,000,000. Mr. Wilson fron the first has been the real manager of the company and has been its president since about 1911.

For many years he has been a leader in the republicar party of his district and state. In 1900 he was elected to the House of Delegates, and served as speaker in the ses sion of 1901. He was closely associated with the manage ment of the senatorial campaign of the late Senator S. B Elkins as well as the campaign of Davis Elkins, the presen' United States senator. Mr. Wilson was a delegate to the republican convention at Chicago in 1920, when Mr. Hard. ing was nominated for President.

Mr. Wilson is a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Masor and Shriner. He married in 1908 Miss Mabel Fout, daugh ter of the late John Fout, long a prominent merchant a Elkins.

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JOHN WESLEY LUTHER, a former member of the State enate of West Virginia, had the distinction of estab- shing at Welch the first undertaking business in McDowell County, and he has here continued in this line of business ince 1903, besides which he was a stockholder and the resident of the Welch Furniture Company.

Mr. Luther was born on a farm on Twelve Pole Creek, Wayne County, West Virginia, July 26, 1874, and is a son f David H. and Rebecca R. (Stock) Luther, the former of hom died at the venerable age of eighty-four years, on the ay that Col. Theodore Roosevelt was elected president of he United States. Mrs. Luther was born in 1835, and her eath occurred January 13, 1919. Her first husband was Vesley Harman, and two children were born of this union. is the wife of David H. Luther she became the mother of even children. Of the children of the second marriage ohn Wesley and George B. were twins, the latter having ost his life in an automobile accident January 16, 1921, at Huntington, in which city he was associated with the Hunt- ngton Lumber & Supply Company.

The Luther family was founded in what is now West Virginia at the time when Gen. George Washington was ere engaged in making surveys, and thus few families in his section of the original Old Dominion commonwealth can laim prior pioneer honors. The original representatives of he family came here from the State of New York, and the enealogical line traces back to sterling German and Irish tock. Settlement was made by the Luthers in the present Wayne County, West Virginia, and there both David H. uther and his wife were born. Representatives of the amily have been residents of the Ceredo and Twelve Pole Creek districts of Wayne County and also of the City of Huntington. David H. Luther was a gallant soldier of the Jnion during virtually the entire period of the Civil war, nd gained the rank of sergeant. He was a republican in political adherence, and his wife was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

John W. Luther gained his early education in a log school- ouse not far distant from the old homestead in Wayne County, and at the age of nineteen years he went to Chanute, Kansas, and found employment in the service of the Mis- ouri, Kansas & Texas Railroad, in which connection he was inally made track foreman and placed in charge of a work rain. He remained nearly three years in the Sunflower State, and upon his return to West Virginia he became an ttendant in the Spencer Hospital. Two years later be was riven general supervision of this institution, and in this ffice he served effectively for a term of five years, within which he gave special attention to the study of anatomy. n 1903 he passed a successful examination in anatomy before the state board, as a prerequisite to establishing him- elf in the undertaking business. Later, in the year 1910, le attended the Barnes School of Anatomy and Sanitary Science in the City of Chicago, in which institution he took post-graduate course in 1912.

In 1903 Mr. Luther came to Welch, where he soon after- vard formed a partnership with C. D. and R. G. Brewster und engaged in the furniture and undertaking business, he being the technical and executive manager of the under- aking and funeral-directing department. In 1910 the busi- less was incorporated under the title of the Welch Furniture Company. Mr. Luther has conducted an independent under- aking enterprise since January 3, 1918, with an establish- nent which is of modern standard in equipment, facilities ind service.

Mr. Luther has taken lively interest in political affairs, served two years as a member of the city council of Welch, and has been notable for progressiveness and public spirit. He has been influential in the local councils and campaign activities of the republican party, and in 1916 was elected o represent his district in the State Senate, in which he nade a record of effective service in behalf of wise legisla- ;ion, he having been a member of the Senate committees on inance, public institutions and railroads during the first egislative session, and in 1919 having been a member of che finance committee, the sanitation committee and the in- surance and compensation committee, of which last he was chairman.

In the Masonic fraternity Mr. Luther is a past master of the Blue Lodge and has been a delegate to the Grand Lodge of West Virginia, and he is a member also of the Chapter of Royal Arch Masons in his home city, besides which he is a past noble grand of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and served fifteen years as secretary of its lodge at Welch. He is affiliated also with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and the Junior Order United American Mechanics, is an influential member of the Welch Chamber of Commerce, and attends and supports the Meth- odist Episcopal Church, South, of which his wife is a member.

November 6, 1901, recorded the marriage of Mr. Luther and Miss Minnie Waren, who was born in Roane County, this state, a daughter of Rev. D. B. Waren, a retired clergy- man of the Methodist Protestant Church. Mr. and Mrs .. Luther have no children.

RICHARD C. FERGUSON. The natural resources of West Virginia are practically limitless, for new sources of wealth are being discovered all the time by men of science and research, thus affording ample scope for the advancement of capable and energetic persons. One of the industries of more recent growth is the manufacture of wood alcohol for development plants, and one of the men who, as operating manager for the wood alcohol plant of the Huntington Gas and Development Company, of Huntington, West Virginia, has made a name for himself, is Richard C. Ferguson, of Dingess, Wayne County. He was born in Frederick County, Maryland, February 18, 1873, a son of Samuel T. and Emma (Cromwell) Ferguson.

Samuel T. Ferguson was born at Washington, D. C., a son of William P. Ferguson, who served in the Union army during the entire war between the North and the South. Emma Cromwell was born in Maryland, Richard C. Fergu- son comes of Maryland and Virginian stock, and on his grandmother's side his ancestors settled in Virginia in 1732. There is Scotch-Irish and French stock in the families, the last named being of the Huguenot strain, which was estab- lished in the American Colonies when the religious persecu- tions drove all Protestants out of France. Samuel T. Fergu- son was a clergyman of the Methodist Protestant Church, and held charges at Newmarket, Maryland, Mardella Springs, Maryland, for four years each in Franklin and Bedford counties, Pennsylvania, and Finksburg, Maryland, and for four years at Libertytown, Maryland, where he died in 1889.

Richard C. Ferguson attended public schools in Pennsyl- vania and Maryland through the grammar grades, the high school at Libertytown, Maryland, and West Maryland Col- lege at Westminster, Maryland. Entering upon a business career, he was for about ten years an accountant and general office worker at Baltimore, and then came to West Virginia as bookkeeper and paymaster for a lumber company at Camden on Grauley, remaining with this concern until 1909, when he went with the Cherry River Boom and Lumber Company at Holcomb, West Virginia, and was in charge of their lumber operations there for ten years. After leaving college at Westminster, Mr. Ferguson took a short course in chemistry at a night school in Baltimore. Leaving the Cherry River people, he took charge of the construction and completion of a wood alcohol and sawmill plant, and put the same into operation at Sutton, West Virginia. Six- teen months later, having completed his contract, he en- gaged with his present company to look after the con- struction of their wood alcohol plant at Dingess, and after its completion was made operating manager. The plant has six retorts, each with a capacity of ten cords of wood, which are charged six times each week, obtaining from ten to twelve gallons of wood alcohol from each cord of wood, beside the acetate of lime and charcoal, of which latter substance there is about fifty bushels from each cord of wood. The company has a supply of wood for fifty years to come.

In 1910 Mr. Ferguson married at Fairmont, West Vir- ginia, Sue Strother, a daughter of Elihu and Letitia (Carr) Strother, farming people, both natives of West Virginia. Mr. and Mrs. Ferguson have one daughter, Letitia. They

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belong to the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. Mr. Fer- guson is a Chapter Mason, and plans to continue in the work of his fraternity. He also belongs to the Knights of Pythias, Junior Order United Mechanics, and is a charter member of his Council, and one of the few men now living who entered this order during the first years of its existence.

While Mr. Ferguson is thoroughly grounded in his pro- fession, he has also a practical experience that is very valuable to him and that enables him to overcome obstacles as nothing else could. His duties are heavy, but he does not neglect his civic responsibilities, and lives up to a high conception of American citizenship and sets an excellent example in his business and private life.

BARNEY L. KIDD is one of the prominent young busi- ness men of Logan County, and at the age of thirty has attained business responsibilities that would do credit to a man much older. His experience has been almost altogether in the lumbering industry, and he is superintendent of two large plants in this typical coal field of Southern West Vir- ginia.

He was born at St. Albans, Kanawha County, West Vir- ginia, April 6, 1891, son of T. J. and Mary A. (Thomas) Kidd. His grandfather was a native of old Virginia and of French ancestry, while his mother's people were English. Both parents were born in West Virginia, and his father has been active in the lumber business in Fayette County, and in the various localities where he has lived has always taken a great interest in public affairs. He has served as a school trustee, is a member of the Masonic Order, and is a leader in the Baptist Church, acting for years as superintendent of the Sunday school.

Barney L. Kidd attended common schools in Kanawha County and in several other counties, and graduated in 1909 at the Mountain State Business College at Parkers- burg. After a few months employment in a law office he began his active experience in the lumber business with the Boone Timber Company at Clothier, West Virginia. He was chief inspector for that firm for two and one-half years, was then inspector for two years, with headquarters at Huntington, for the Peytona Lumber Company, was in- spector at Accoville about two and one-half years, and then came to his present location at Omar in Logan County, where he is superintendent of the company's operations, comprising two complete sawmills, planing mill, dry kilns and flooring plant. One complete sawmill is located at Christian in Logan County. The mills have a capacity of about 65,000 feet of finished product daily. This product is shipped from the plants to various points throughout the United States.

Mr. Kidd married in 1913, at Pomeroy, Ohio, Miss Ruth Martin, daughter of James A. and Mary Martin. Her par- ents were both born in West Virginia. Mr. and Mrs. Kidd have two children, Geraldine Martin and Dona Gene. They are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

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History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 3, Part 122

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