History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 3, Part 125

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William Holland West lived at home until 1877, having acquired his education in the common schools. When he left home he took charge of the farm he now occupies, then owned by his uncle, Lancelot John. Lancelot John was then an old man and had lived on the present West farm from early life. Lancelot John was born in Greene County, Pennsylvania, was reared in West Virginia, and died in 1895, at the age of eighty-two. His wife was Sarah Holland, a sister of Elizabeth Holland. She died at the

age of sixty-five, and they were not survived by childre: William H. West had cared for them twenty-one years an inherited the 150 acres they owned. As noted previousl le also has the old farm owned by his mother, where } had lived fifteen years, looking after her in old age. Th part of the estate comprises 168 acres out of the origin. 420 acres. Mr. West has made a practical success of ge eral farming, growing both grain and cattle. He hi served as a director and is still a stockholder in the Fel eral Savings & Trust Company of Morgantown. The der ocratie organization has been kept alive through the e forts of such men as Mr. West, and he is the county com mitteeman for Clinton District and has attended sever conventions as a delegate. For four years he was scho commissioner, served by appointment from Governor Glas cock as a member of the County Board of Equalization, al has been a candidate for county commissioner.

In 1883 he married Miss Ellen Cole, then twenty-fo years of age. She is a daughter of John S. and Lovin (Bonner) Cole, of Cheat Neck, Monongalia County. M. and Mrs. West have three children. Elizabeth is the wij of Frank Shuttlesworth, a retired farmer at Morgantow The second child is John Hamilton West. The third Mary, wife of Ernest Wilmer, and they live with Mu. West. John Hamilton West married Maude Clark, Marion County, and for some years he has been the ma ager of the old Holland farm. W. H. West is a memb of the Forks of Cheat Baptist Church, the oldest Bapti Church in West Virginia, organized November 5, 1775. Fo successive church buildings have accommodated the societ and the present church was erected in 1884, succeedin the former brick church. Mr. West is a member of t. Grange, and is affiliated with the Independent Order Odd Fellows and Junior Order United American Mechanic

FRANK BLAINE ST. CLAIR is one of the younger men progress identified with the substantial development Monongalia County. He is a farmer and Hereford catt breeder, living in Union District, seven miles north Morgantown, on the Point Marion Road.

This farm where he lives today is his birthplace, a: both he and his mother were born in the same house, whi stood almost on the site of his present home. He was bo January 12, 1880, son of Edgar W. and Elizabeth (Joh St. Clair. His father was born in the same district 1839, and died in 1901, at the age of sixty-two. T. pioneer of the family was Jordan St. Clair and his wi. Malinda, who lived out their lives on a farm on West Ry Jordan St. Clair is survived by two sons, Millard a; Leroy, and a daughter, Carrie, widow of Edgar Donly Edgar W. St. Clair was married at the John homestea Elizabeth John was a daughter of William John, and herited a third of his estate and has lived practically her life on the farm. For a number of years Edgar Clair operated a store at Easton and later at Stewartstowy and then took the management of the John homester He did general farming here and he also had an extensa business as a timber buyer. He bought a number of tray of standing timber, gave employment to a large force men in the logging season, operated a saw mill and a rafted great quantities of lumber and timber down 1 Cheat and Monongahela rivers to Pittsburgh. He own the old St. Clair place of 100 acres four miles from own home. He was a director of the Second Nation Bank of Morgantown. Edgar St. Clair was not only efficient business man but had unusual abilities in a pi lic way, being able to make effective public speeches a was a party worker in the Republican ranks. He sery four terms in the State Legislature during the '90s. and his wife were members of the Forks of Cheat Bapt Church, the oldest church of that denomination in state. He was survived nine years by his widow, w passed away in 1910, at the age of sixty-eight. The two children are Myrtle and Frank Blaine. The former Mrs. Charles Hunter, and she owns a part of the old Clair homestead.

Frank Blaine St. Clair finished his education with t

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ars in West Virginia University, and then took charge the homestead. On October 24, 1898, he married Mabel Echart, daughter of William and Belle (Moore) Echart. r father was born in Monongalia County, but as a young in removed to Kansas, where he married and where for ne years he followed the trade of stone mason at Topeka. then returned to West Virginia, and is still active in trade at Morgantown. Mabel Echart was born in Kan- and was nine years of age when brought to West Vir- ia. Mr. and Mrs. St. Clair have three children: Dale rtimer, Edgar William, a senior in the Morgantown High hool, and Helen Elizabeth, all at home. Mr. and Mrs. Clair are members of the Eden Methodist Protestant urch. They live in a very attractive country home, hav- , built their residence four years ago. Mr. St. Clair s continued in a measure in the lumber business in which father was engaged, and operates a portable saw mill. r several years he has been a successful breeder of reford cattle.

DAVID SCOTT ZEARLEY. Some of the best examples of vanced agricultural methods in the State of West Vir- ia are found in the districts of the Monongahela River rth of Morgantown. This is a district in which spe- lized farming has been highly developed, and several the farms there have furnished some interesting demon- ations of crop yields that have set remarkably high ndards in the state. One of this progressive group of mers in the Union District is David Scott Zearley, bably the pioneer and the most successful alfalfa mer in that section.

Mr. Zearley, whose home is eight miles north of Mor- ntown, with postoffice at Point Marion, Pennsylvania, s boru a mile south of the latter village, in Fayette unty, but close to the West Virginia line, September 16, 57, son of Isaac and Elizabeth (Bowman) Zearley. The arley family originated in England and first settled in w Jersey. Joshua Zearley, the immigrant, moved west Venango County in Western Pennsylvania. His son, hn Zearley, was born at French Creek in Venango Coun-

Joshua, the pioneer, later built the first fulling mill Fayette County, on Georges Creek. This was about 90, and the site of the old mill can still be identified a pier of the Baltimore & Ohio bridge. The old Zearley me is also still standing, and in this home Joshua Zear- · spent his last days. John Zearley as a young man lo- ed on Baker's Ridge in Monongalia County, but returned Fayette County and operated a fulling mill on Dunkard ek in Greene County, Pennsylvania, where he was liv- , at the time of his death, at the age of fifty-seven. hn Zearley was the father of Isaac Zearley, who was rn in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, at Smithfield, on site of the old fulling mill. He learned the carpenter's de. Isaac Zearley was one of seven sons. His brothers hn and David removed to Iowa. His brother Jacob op- .ted a woolen mill at Blacksville, West Virginia, and d in this state. A half brother, Samuel J., was a tain in the Union Army and died at Scottdale, Penn- vania. There were two half sisters, Susan and Miss .ncy. Susan became the wife of Thomas Conwell and ed on Baker's Ridge, where she and her husband died. e is survived by daughters, Mrs. Alice Hoard, wife of M. Hoard, Mrs. Lizzie Ross, now of Parkersburg, and o Mrs. Ida Thomas of Monongalia County.

Isaac Zearley followed the trade of carpenter most of active life and died in Fayette County at the age of hty-five. His wife, Elizabeth Bowman, died at the same 3. His first wife was Mary Colebank, of Monongalia unty, who left one daughter, Anna, who became the wife D. K. Stewart, and both are now deceased. The chil- in of Isaac and Elizabeth Zearley were: Addis, of rgantown; David Scott; Isaac Judson, a carpenter ; Lee, a civil and mining engineer at Uniontown, Pennsyl- lia; and Effie Louise, who died in childhood. Addis arley spent three years in West Virginia University, as young man began teaching, and spent forty years in , schoolroom, chiefly in Fayette County, Pennsylvania,

though for four years he taught in West Virginia. He is now living retired at Morgantown. He married a cousin, Lizzie Zearley, and their two children are Joy, a teacher in the high school at Alderson, West Virginia, and Gay, a student in West Virginia University.

David Scott Zearley acquired a good education and learned the carpenter's trade under his father. In 1883 he married Mary A. Morris, daughter of Uriah S. and Elizabeth (Board) Morris, whose old home is near Point Marion. Her parents died each at the age of eighty-six. Uriah Morris was a farmer, and lived all his active career on one farm. There were seven Morris children: John G., who lived on the old Morris farm and is now retired at Point Marion; Melissa, wife of William Sawyer, who lives at the former Zearley homestead at Point Marion; Nickson, who left home when a young man and is a carpenter at Holdridge, Nebraska; Mary A., Mrs. Zearley; Sanford C., a blacksmith by trade, now on the police force at Fair- mont; Isaac, a coal operator at Easton; and Matilda, wife of Marshall Sawyer, living near Point Marion.

David Scott Zearley has done a great deal of work as a carpenter, and for thirty years lived and worked at Uniontown, Pennsylvania. Twenty-five years ago he moved to his present farm, though much of his time has been taken up with work at his trade. Mr. Zearley in his farm- ing has solved some of the problems of soil preservation and building up in this hill region. Thirty-six years ago his father secured a few pounds of alfalfa seed, and the Zearleys have been a stanch friend of alfalfa as a money crop and soil builder ever since. Mr. Zearley makes alfalfa his leading crop, but has experimented with other legumes, including soy beans and cow peas. He has limed his soil preparatory for alfalfa, and has demonstrated the value of this deep rooted crop as a means of holding the soil on hillsides. Some of his exhibits of the legume crops have served a useful purpose as examples and object lessons at the State University Agricultural School. Mr. Zearley was one of the leaders of the Farm Bureau movement in his vicinity. His farm comprises fifty-six acres, most of it tillable. He is active in the Grange, is an independent voter, and does his work in connection with community affairs, seldom lending his name to the support of any partisan political movement.

A great inspiration was removed not only from him and his family but from the entire community when Mrs. Zearley died suddenly September 9, 1921. She was ap- parently in the midst of vigorous health, and the previous day had attended a session of the Farm Bureau. She was an active worker in church, grange, farm bureau and other community affairs. Mr. Zearley has four daughters: Grace, wife of Dell Robinson, of Stewartstown; Martha, a professional nurse at Fairmont; Nellie, Mrs. Elmer Blos- ser, of Morgantown; and Hazel, wife of Wayne Blosser, a merchant at Stewartstown.

JEREMIAH THOMAS, banker, business man, minister, and for many years a successful teacher, is a resident of Bruce- ton Mills and represents a family that has given substan- tial aid to every worthy interest in that section of Preston County for considerably more than a century.

Members of this family came to West Virginia from Pennsylvania. Michael Thomas was born in Pennsylvania, a descendant of one of three brothers, Alexander, William and Lewis, who came from Wales in Colonial days. The probable ancestor of the West Virginia branch of the fam- ily was Alexander, of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Michael Thomas was the father of seven sons and an initial "M" was used in each of these sons' names in honor of the father. These seven sons were Jacob M., Michael M., George M., John M., Samuel M., Daniel M. and Christian M. The sisters of these brothers were Magdalena, Bar- bara and Anna, the latter becoming the wife of Andrew Umbel and spending her life in Fayette County, Pennsyl- vania. The sons Michael and George remained in Fayette County. Samuel and Daniel went West, one to Iowa and the other probably to Ohio. John and Jacob became per- manent residents of West Virginia.

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Jacob M. Thomas, grandfather of Jeremiah, was born in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, and came to West Vir- ginia from Fayette County about 1816, shortly after the close of the second war with Great Britain. He built the pioneer home on his farm four miles east of Brandonville, and lived the rest of his life in that honse, where he died November 21, 1881. While an industrious farmer, his life was of considerably more importance than that of an in- dividual business man. He was a minister and elder of the Church of the Brethren, and performed missionary labors over six or eight counties of West Virginia, frequently preaching in court houses at the invitation of judges. While his educational advantages were not above those now af- forded by the common schools, he was a real student, and acquired a wide range of knowledge. After reaching his majority he gave his entire attention to farming until about the age of thirty-five, when he was converted and about five years later began preaching. Ile was thor- oughly well informed on the Scriptures, and was conversant with both the German and English, though all his sermons were delivered in English. He had a gift as an expounder of religious doetrines, and as a missionary, accompanied by a few friends, built up church communities and caused the erection of a number of places of worship.

His knowledge and interest extended beyond church and religion to the events of his day. He was one of the early readers of the old Wheeling Intelligencer, and was one of the pioneer voters of the republican faith in his see- tion of West Virginia. His mother was a Miss Maust, of German ancestry, and the Thomas family lived in a Ger- man community of Pennsylvania, which accounts for the knowledge Reverend Jacob had of the German tongue. Rev. Jacob M. Thomas married Mary Fike. Their four sons were John J., Levi, Jacob and Andrew, the last two serv- ing as Union soldiers. The daughters were Magdalena, who died unmarried; Sallie, who became the wife of Adam Rosenberger; Anna, who married William Conn; Mary, who became Mrs. Jesse Knox; Barbara, who was the wife of Joseph Zimmerman; and Catherine, who married Samuel Rishel. After the death of the mother of these children Rev. Jacob Thomas married Hepsy Davis, but there were no children from this union.

Andrew Thomas, father of the Bruceton Mills banker, was born in Preston County, May 4, 1836. He acquired a country school education, and spent his life on the old homestead farm. During the last years of the Civil war he was a member of Company K, Seventeenth West Vir- ginia Infantry, going in as a private, and he escaped wounds and capture. Ile was a staneh republican, always voting at elections but declining political honors. He did his religious work as a layman. Andrew Thomas married Barbara Boger, daughter of Samuel Boger. She was born in Preston County, May 3, 1840, and died February 22, 1879, being survived over twenty years by her husband, Andrew. Their children consisted of a daughter and three sons: Mary Elizabeth, who became the wife of Irvin Wilson and died in Preston County, June 30, 1889; Jeremiah; Noah, who occupies the homestead farm in sue- cession to his father and grandfather; and Ira, a farmer and stock raiser at Bruceton Mills.

Jeremiah Thomas was born June 20, 1862, and was reared at the old Thomas homestead. He was educated in the common schools, and for a term or two in West Virginia University at Morgantown. Mr. Thomas began teaching at the age of nineteen. His work was in the same school where he had learned his first lessons, and he taught that school altogether for fifteen years. Subsequently his abil- ity ae a teacher benefited other schools, and his career as an educator only came to a close after he had taught for twenty-seven years. In the intervals of teaching he car- ried on a farm, was also land surveyor, and he had a teacher's certificate good for five years when he was in- duced to leave the school room and became cashier of the Bruceton Bank in 1907.

He succeeded R. W. Machesney as cashier of the Bruce- ton Bank. At that time L. E. Friend was president of the institution. The Bruceton Bank was opened in December,

1903, its promoters being farmers in the Bruceton localit Its capital has been $25,000 from the beginning and it nc has surplus and undivided profits of $32,000. Its directo are the Thomas brothers, Jeremiah, Noah and Ira, al Vestus Thomas, Walter Collins, Floyd Cale, H. A. Knc J. E. Jenkins and W. S. Ridenour. Mr. Thomas sever years ago was elected president of the bank, his son 8℃ ceeding him as cashier.

Mr. Thomas was president of the company which bong the Beeghty property at Bruceton, moved the old pla away and built a new mill on the site and operated t greatly improved property for about a dozen years, un tho company sold to the Hydro Electric Company of We Virginia. The Hydro Electric Company sold the plant W. D. Smith, who sold in 1922 to HI. P. and S. F. Moye: Mr. Thomas is and has been for fifteen or twenty yea secretary of the Farmers Union Association and Fire ] surance Company. In his work as a land surveyor he r. the lines around more than fifty farms in Preston Count and did snifar work in Maryland and Pennsylvania.

These interests thus briefly sketched would seem to ma up a busy program for a very energetie man. However Mr. Thomas has other work to his credit. He was co verted as a youth of fourteen and joined the Church the Brethren, his grandfather's old faith. At the age nineteen he was elected to the ministry, and a year lat began preaching as a helper to Elder Solomon Buckle At the age of twenty-six he was ordained to the eldersh to take charge of the congregation. He preached his fi sermon at the Valley schoolhouse near Wymp's Gap fre the text "How shall we escape if we neglect so grey salvation." Ile has had charge of that congregati, ever since, with helpers under him, and the congregati has four church buildings and an interest in two others, aj in all of these and in three schoolhouses regular servic are held. The congregation in 1922 had a membership 550. Mr. Thomas is also chairman of the Mission Boa of the First District of West Virginia and a memb of the Ministerial Board of the same district.

Mr. Thomas led the movement for the establishment a high school in Grant District, a school that has be running three years. While teaching he was urged to pr mit his name to be used in connection with the nominati for county superintendent of schools, but he declined tì honor. llis competence as a surveyor also led friends induce him to become candidate for county surveyor, b. this too he declined, having no ambition for political hono Ile is a republican voter.

On May 25, 1882, in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, M Thomas married Miss Susanna Seese. She was born 1 cember 19, 1861, daughter of John and Mary Ann (U bel) Seese, a family of substantial farmers in Fayet County. Mrs. Thomas is one of nine surviving childre and others living in West Virginia are Andrew, George and . Mrs. Zelma Livingood. Mr. and Mrs. Thomas ha three children and five grandchildren. Walter Herbe who is a graduate of the business department of t Elizabethtown College in Pennsylvania, succeeded his fatl as cashier of the Bruceton Bank for several years, but signed and is now holding a position in the office of t Norfolk & Western Railroad Company at Roanoke, V ginia. Ile married Mary Collier, and his three childi are Lena, Beulah ,and Dwight. Chester Arthur, the s. ond son, has given a number of years to work as a teach and is a farmer near Brandonville. He married Gra Wolfe, and their two children are Panline and Alma. I youngest of Mr. Thomas' children and only daughter Ethel May, now in the junior class at Bridgewater C lege in Virginia.

RICHARD OWEN O'DELL, M. D. Through his professi as a physician and surgeon Doctor O'Dell has become a m of prominence in his community at South Charleston, a recently was selected by popular vote to serve as may of that municipality.

Doctor O'Dell was born at Mount Nebo in Nicho County, West Virginia, February 25, 1884, a son of All

Richard Q. ODell'ml

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HISTORY OF WEST VIRGINIA

.. O'Dell and grandson of John F. O'Dell. John F. O'Dell me from Virginia, was an early settler in Nicholas County, id served as connty surveyor. His old transit is still in e possession of his family. In 1912 his grandson, R. O. 'Dell, was elected county surveyor, being at that time a udent at Valparaiso, Indiana. Allen M. O'Dell died in icholas County about 1909, at the age of sixty-three. He as a farmer, and for many years held the office of justice : the peace. His wife was Margaret Dorsey, who died at e age of seventy-four.

R. O. O'Dell grew up on a farm, and after attending immer schools was a pupil in summer normals under Pro- ssor J. C. Ramsey, the oldest teacher in Nicholas County. e graduated from Valparaiso University, and spent two ars in the Chicago College of Medicine and Surgery, where , graduated with the class of 1917. He has for five years one a great deal of his work as a surgeon in the Dunn ospital at South Charleston in addition to his general 'actice. Doctor O'Dell came to South Charleston to join s cousin, Dr. S. G. Backus, now deceased. The sister of octor Backus is Mrs. Lola Bowles, widow of Dr. Lock owles, who died in 1916. Mrs. Bowles is the present city corder of South Charleston, the first woman ever elected office in that community.

Doctor O'Dell has always taken a keen interest in the elfare of his home city, served as a member of the city uncil, and in 1920 was defeated as a candidate for mayor. e served as health officer, and in the spring of 1922 was ected mayor, receiving a handsome majority.

He married in Nicholas County Iva Marie Mccutcheon, of ominy Falls. She died in November, 1917, three years ter their marriage. She left a daughter, Iva Marie. octor O'Dell has since married Edna M. Spathe, of Penn- Ivania. He is a director of and stockholder in the First ational Bank of South Charleston. He is a thirty-second gree Scottish Rite Mason and Shriner, an Odd Fellow, a ember of the Eastern Star, the Modern Woodmen and e order of Ben-Hur.

GEORGE MEADE BOWERS, of Martinsburg, congressman om the Second West Virginia District, has been active in e public life of the state and the nation for nearly thirty ars, and at the same time has carried many heavy respon- bilities in business and affairs.

He was born at Gerrardstown, Berkeley County, Septem- er 13, 1863, son of John S. and Mary E. (Stump) Bowers. is great-grandfather was a native of Connecticut and a oneer of Berkeley County. He died at the age of ninety- vo and his wife at ninety-one. The grandfather of Con- 'essman Bowers was George M. Bowers, a native of Berke- y County and a life-long resident there. He married leanor Lamon, who was born at Bunker Hill in Berkeley ounty, daughter of George and Eleanor (Ward) Lamon, itives of Scotland and pioneers of Berkeley County. John

Bowers was the only son born to his parents, and as a uth he became self-supporting, exercising his genius as a ader and eventually developing an extensive business in .estock and real estate, from which he amassed a fortune. e died at the age of sixty-two. His wife, Mary E. Stump, as born in Darkesville, Berkeley County, daughter of esper Stump, a native of the same county and a grand- ughter of Caspar Stump, a native of Germany, who brought s family to America and settled in Berkeley County on a rm. Caspar Stump, Sr., was a saddle and harness manufac- rer, and conducted a business for many years at Gerrards- wn, where he continued to live out his life. He married Cath- ine Maddox, who was born at Williamsport, Maryland, 1817, daughter of James and Hannah (McComas) Mad- x, of Harford County, Maryland. Six of her brothers rved in the Confederate army during the war between the ates. James Maddox lived near Darkesville in Berkeley unty for several years, and his last years were spent with son in Jefferson County.

John S. Bowers was born at Gerrardstown in 1823 and is twice married. His first wife was Mary E. Stump, 10 died of typhoid fever at the age of thirty-six. Her ster, Virginia Stump, became the second wife of John S. owers, and she is now living at Gerrardstown.

Vol. III-45

George Meade Bowers was one of seven children, and as a boy attended private school and the public school at Gerrardstown, spent two years in the Martinsburg High School and studied under a private tutor two years. At the age of seventeen he came to Martinsburg to begin his real business career, and subsequently operated a flour mill and dealt in wool. When he was twenty-one years of age his father died, leaving a large estate, which Mr. Bowers capably administered. At the age of twenty-one he was elected a member of the board of directors of the old National Bank, served in that position several years, then became a director in the People's Trust Company, and for a number of years past has been president of that institu- tion. His business interests cover a wide scope. He is the largest individual owner of bearing apple orchards in Berkeley County.

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History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 3, Part 125

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