History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 3, Part 148

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Mr. Barnes has participated in a number of republican campaigns and has attended three national conventions of the party. He has a mind of remarkable power, and as earried on his studies and investigations over a large ield involving sociology, economics, political science and istory, as well as the literature of his own profession. He is a member of the Methodist Church.

Mr. Barnes married Lena Belle Ice, and they have two hildren, Hugh and Margaret.

CLERC ALEXANDER PARRISH is manager and one of the proprietors of the industry and business at Spencer that upplies the principal service in building materials and lum- er manufacture for Roane County. Members of the fam- ly have been in the timber and lumber business for a num- er of years, and Mr. Parrish is one of the most substan- ial figures in the community.

He comes of pioneer and frontier stock of old West Vir- inia. His great-great-grandfather and great-grandfather rere frontiersmen in the real sense, living in West Vir- inia when Indians and big game both flourished here. Both these ancestors were named William Parrish, and were orn in England, and were pioneers in the vicinity of Fair- hont. They were family connections of the noted Morgan amily of that region. The grandfather, also named Will- im Parrish, was born at Fairmont in 1804, moved out of hat locality to the vicinity of Mannington and in I855 to ;lizabeth in Wirt County, and in 1868 established his home t Ripley. He spent all his life engaged in agricultural ursuits, and was a very successful and influential citizen. [e was a democrat in polities, and died at Ripley in 1886. Villiam Parrish married Elizabeth Hamilton, who was orn near Fairmont in 1804, and died at Ripley in 1896. Calder H. Parrish, father of Clere A. Parrish, was born t Mannington in Marion County in 1848, and lived there ntil he was seven years of age, when his parents moved Elizabeth, where he remained until he was twenty, and ince then has been a resident of Ripley, Jackson County. arming is his business, and he is still active in the grow- ig and feeding of cattle and other livestock. He is a emocrat, and a member of the Methodist Protestant hureh, doing much to keep up the work of this denomina- on. Calder H. Parrish married Mary Frances Parsons, ho was born at Middleport, Ohio, in 1856. Their family onsists of the following children: Della, of Speneer, idow of William Huddleston, who was a lumber dealer ; ibbie D., wife of Benjamin D. Shatto, a baker at Spen- or; Homer Clinton, a grocer and elothing merchant at peneer; Grace Elizabeth, wife of Allie B. Gainer, owner nd operator of the Spencer meat market; Clere Alexander; kla, wife of Iden M. MeWhorter, a merchant at Me- Thorter in Harrison County ; Marie E., wife of Everett M. innett, assistant cashier of the Roane County Bank of pencer; Isabelle, wife of Henry D. Goff, and both are ow pursuing advanced studies in the University of Michi-

gan at Ann Arbor; and John C., assistant manager of the Speneer Planing Mills.

Clere Alexander Parrish was born at Ripley in Jackson County December 5, ESS4, and acquired his early education in the public schools there. In 1907 he graduated from Branniger's Business College at Parkersburg, and for two years he studied law in the office of his cousin, Osear Par sons, at Ripley. He abandoned his ambition in the law to Become a practical business man. From 1909 to 1913 Mr. Parrish was a merchant at Spencer. He then bought the planing mill and lumber yard of his brother in-law, William HInddleston, deceased, and he and his sister, Mrs. William Huddleston, are now partners and sole proprietors of this successful industry. The firm deals in lumber and build- ing supplies, and works up a great deal of native timber in the planing mill.

Mr. Parrish is a democrat, a member of the Methodist Protestant Church, is affiliated with Ripley Lodge No. 16. F. and A. M., is a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason. a member of West Virginia Consistory No. 1 at Wheeling, is a member of Nemesis Temple of the Mystie Shrine at Parkersburg, and belongs to the Spencer Rotary Club.

Ilis business interests include, besides the lumber and planing mill, a large amount of valuable property in Roane County. He has three tracts, each containing eight arres of valuable land, one a mile west of Spencer, one a mile south and one a mile north. He also has 335 acres on Mill Creek in Jackson County. In 1921 he put up two dwelling houses at Spencer, and his own home is a modern residence on the Arnoldsburg Pike, a mile east of Spencer, where his home is surrounded by five acres of ground.

In 1916, at Spencer, Mr. Parrish married Miss Virginia Louise Godfrey, daughter of Albert and Elizabeth (Bireley ) Godfrey, the latter a resident of Spencer. Her father, who died at Parkersburg, was an oil operator. Mrs. Par- rish is a graduate of the Parkersburg High School and fin- ished her education in an art school in Tennessee. The two children born to their marriage are Robert Godfrey, born October 5, 1917, and Jackson Clere, born June 3, 1920.

ROY L. MCCULTY is one of the younger group of pro- gressive citizens in Roane County, where he has been a teacher, banker, public official, and had an interesting rec- ord of service during the World war. He is the present County Court clerk.

Mr. MeCulty was born at Schilling in Roane County September 6, 1889. The MeCultys came from Ireland to Virginia in Colonial times. His grandfather, William Me- Culty, was born in Virginia in 1820, was married in Hardy County, West Virginia, and soon afterward settled in Roane County, where he lived his life as a farmer until his death at Schilling in 1897. His wife was Angeline Cooper, who was born in Hardy County in 1825, and died at Sehil- ling in 1907. Henry S. McCulty, father of County Court ('lerk MeCulty, was born at Arnoldsburg, Calhoun County, West Virginia September 12, 1864, and as a young man moved to Schilling, where he married and where he lived on a farm for several years. In 1891 he entered the min- istry of the Methodist Protestant Church, and has been an active and prominent worker in that denomination, preach- ing in Roane, Ritchie and Pleasants counties, and is now pastor of the Weston Cireuit at Weston in Lewis County. He is a republican, and is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. Rev. Mr. MeCulty married Elizabeth Coe, who was born in North Carolina January 19, 1868. Their children are: Homer S., an undertaker at Pennsboro in Ritehie County; Roy L .; Kenna, an attendant in the Ohio Hospital at Athens; William G., a merchant at Spen- cer; Floral Ruth, wife of Alva Loeke, a stationary engi- neer at St. Mary's, West Virginia; Harry K., who elerks in a general store at Spencer; Hallie Curtis, a eoal miner at Weston; and Clifford, living with his parents at Weston.

Roy L. MeCulty acquired a rural school education in Roane County, attending school to the age of seventeen, and for seven years taught in the rural distriets. He ae- quired his first knowledge of the office with which he is now connected as deputy County Court elerk, and continued so

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until 1913. In that year he became a clerk in the First National Bank of Spencer and remained until be enlisted February 22, 1918. Mr. McCulty was in Camp Upton, New York, until May 27, 1918, when he went overseas with the Thirty-ninth Engineers, attached to the Seventy-seventh Division. He was with his command on the firing line in the Toul sector for four months, and while there was made a line sergeant. Following that for six months he was at Beaune, and for four months was at Dijon, and while there was promoted to be a sergeant of the first class. Mr. Mc- Culty after more than a year overseas returned to the United States July 8, 1919, and received his honorable discharge at Camp Lee, Virginia, on the 19th of July. On returning home he resumed work in the First National Bank of Spencer, remaining there until August, 1920.

Mr. MeCulty was elected County Court clerk of Roane County in November, 1920, and began his six year term on January 1, 1921. He was elected on the republican tieket. He is a member of the Methodist Protestant Church and is secretary of Maria Lodge No. 38, F. and A. M., at Spen- cer, member of Spencer Chapter No. 42, R. A. M., is a past grand of Campbell Lodge No. 101, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and is a member of the American Legion.

HARLEN SIMON CRUMMETT is state superintendent for the Ohio Fuel Oil Company, with headquarters at Spen- cer. He is a veteran of the oil district of West Virginia and comes of a family that has supplied many expert and technical men to the oil industry.

Mr. Crummett was born in Ritchie County October 26, 1880. His grandfather, Jacob Crummett, was born in Pendleton County, West Virginia, in 1822, but spent his active life as a farmer in Ritchie County and was also a lay preacher of the Methodist Church. He died on his farm four miles southeast of Harrisville, at the head of Dog Run, in Ritchie County, in 1907. His wife, Mahala Simmons, was born in Pendleton County in 1822, and is still living with her children, a centenarian. Her son, George F. Crummett, was born in Ritchie County October 24, 1853, and since his marriage bas lived on one farm, located seven miles south of Harrisville in that county. Besides farming he has followed the trade of carpenter. He is a republican, an active worker in the Methodist Church and a member of the Odd Fellows. George F. Crummett married Mary Alice Wilson, who was born in Ritchie County June 5, 1856. They became the parents of a large family of children : Mrs. Bernice Westfall, of Ritchie County, whose husband is a teamster; Harlen Si- mon; Jacob, an oil field worker who died in Oklahoma at the age of thirty-six; Valera, wife of Raymond Haugh, an oil and gas well driller in Ritchie County; Clarence Albert, an oil field worker living at Robinson, Illinois; Howard, district foreman for the South Penn Oil Company in Ritchie County; Carrie, at home, widow of Charles Bog- gess, a painter by trade, who died in Ritchie County ; Glenn, nn oil field worker in Ritchie County; Sadie, wife of Charles Cowan, a worker in the oil fields in Ritchie County.

Harlen Simon Crummett spent the first sixteen years of his life on his father's farm in Ritchie County, and while there attended the rural schools. On leaving home he found employment in the oil fields, beginning in the Cairo field of Ritchie County. In 1899 he entered the service of the Southern Oil Company, with which he remained seven years, beginning as a roustabout and then in the capacity of pumper. For two years following that he was foreman for this company, and in 1908 came into the Rock Creek field of Roane County for the South Penn Oil Company, in the capacity of a gang pusher for eleven months. Leav- ing that corporation, he has since been with the Ohio Fuel Oil Company, serving as a roustabout three years in the Hammack field of Roane County, subsequently was a fore- man until January, 1919, at which date he was given the responsibility of superintendent of all the West Virginia operations of this company. Mr. Crummett has had his home at Spencer since the fall of 1917. He has a force of a hundred men under his supervision. He owns a modern home on Front Street in Spencer.

He was thoroughly alive to his patriotic responsibilities

during the World war, and took an active part in promoting the success of the various drives in his section. He is : republican and a member of the Baptist Church. In 1902 in Ritchie County, he married Miss Elizabeth Weinrick, a native of that county. They are the parents of three daugh ters: Thelma, born May 23, 1903, is the wife of Carl C Hunt, an oil field worker living at Gay in Jackson County Freda, born May 11, 1905, is in the junior class of the Spencer High School; Mildred, born February 21, 1907, i. also in her third year in high school.

REUBEN MILLARD THOMASSON, representing a family tha has been identified with Roane County nearly a century, i one of the ablest citizens and business men of Spencer where for some years he has devoted his talents to building up a very successful general insurance business.

His great-great-grandfather was G. W. Thomasson, wh came from Scotland to Boston, Massachusetts. His so John Poindexter Thomasson was born in Dinwiddie County Virginia, in 1784, and as early as 1829 he acquired his firs lands in Curtis District of Roane County, and in the earl '40s he established his permanent home in that district He was one of the very wealthy and influential men of ol Virginia and of West Virginia. For one term he sat i Congress, and he. was a member of the lobby in the Vil ginia Legislature promoting the formation of Roane County. He was a democrat in politics. His land holdings made hir one of the wealthiest citizens of old Virginia. In 1857 h paid taxes on more than 47,000 acres. In 1865 he owne at least 300,000 acres, distributed over Virginia, West Vijf ginia, Ohio and Kentucky. John P. Thomasson died i Curtis District of Roane County in March, 1867. He grew up in Louisa County, Virginia, where in 1806 he marrie Nancy Hancock, who was born in that connty in 1784 an died in Roane County in 1870. Mordecer James Thomas son, grandfather of the Spencer business man, was bor in Louisa County, Virginia, in 1817, and spent his activ life as a farmer in Curtis District of Roane County, wher he died in January, 1867. He married Susan Rader, a na tive of Jackson County, who died in Curtis District.

Lewis L. Thomasson, their son, was born in Roan County January 20, 1850, and spent all his active life ther as a farmer. When he retired in 1917 he moved to Akro] Ohio, where he died April 23, 1919. Hle was active in th democratic party, served a number of terms as constabl was a pillar in his Baptist Church and was affiliated wit the Junior Order United American Mechanics. Lewis 1| Thomasson married Emaline Parsons, who was born Set tember 13, 1852, in Roane County, and is now living wit her son Hoyt at Akron, Ohio. Her children were Ida A wife of Forest W. Heaton, a machinist at Akron; Lonni a farmer near Urbana, Ohio; Harvey A., a building co) tractor at Akron; Clyde Clayton, a street car conductor : Akron; Hoyt, an employe of the Firestone Rubber Cou pany at Akron; and Reuben Millard.

Reuben M. Thomasson was born in the Curtis District ( Roane County October 10, 1879, and for the first eightee years lived on his father's farm. It is interesting to no that all his education was acquired in one schoolhouse : Curtis District, a school that he attended three and a ha months each year from the age of eight until he was eigh een. When he left home soon afterward Mr. Thomasson b came a fireman on the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad out { Grafton, and six months later left railroading to becon an employe in the general store of M. DePue & Sons : Kyger, where he remained two years. The next two yea he worked in the compounding department of the Diamor Rubber Company at Akron, and in 1903 began his exper ence as an insurance man at Spencer. While getting in this business be was employed in a grocery store at Spe cer from 1903 to 1906, and from 1908 until January, 191 had charge of the Spencer Drug Store. Since then he h devoted his time exclusively to general insurance busines and the facilities of his organization extend all over } county. In life insurance he represents the Mutual Life I surance Company of New York, and represents eight of t standard fire insurance companies, his offices being in t Kelley Building on Market Street.

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HISTORY OF WEST VIRGINIA

Mr. Thomasson served a time as mayor of Spencer in 13. As democratic candidate for county commissioner ran 300 votes ahead of his ticket in a strong republican tion. He is a democrat, is affiliated with Moriah Lodge . 38, A. F. and A. M., at Spencer, is a member of the lependent Order of Odd Fellows and the Modern Wood- n of America, and is vice president of the Spencer tary Club and a member and stockholder in the Spencer untry Club. During the World war he was chairman of executive committee of the Roane County Chapter of the d Cross, and associated actively with the various drives Liberty Bonds and other causes.

On January 23, 1908, at Spencer, he married Miss Bess rold, daughter of Richard H. and Helen (Davidson) rold, now deceased. Her father, who died at Spencer 1921, was in early life a mechanic in the service of the Ilman Company, later a merchant at Charleston, and om 1903 until he retired was a business man of Spencer. s. Thomasson finished her education in the Charleston gh School. The three children born to their marriage : Helen Elaine, born November 16, 1908; Frances, who d in infancy; and Charlotte Ann, born February 26, 20.

FRANK L. EVANS is one of those loyal, liberal and pub- spirited citizens whose value in a community is not ily to he overestimated. and the vital little port city Point Pleasant, Mason County, claims him as one of its presentative citizens and men of affairs, he here being sident of the Point Pleasant Grocery Company, which «s organized in 1906 and which was incorporated with a bital of $150,000. In 1921 was effected a reorganization the company, which now bases its extensive operations on capital stock of $300,000. In January, 1922, the eom- piy completed its large and modern building, at the cor- of Eleventh and Viand streets, and the scope and im- prtanee of the substantial wholesale business of the con- un were materially augmented by the purchase of the pperty and business of the Enterprise Grocery Company of the 2nd of January, 1922, for a consideration of ap- p ximately $125,000. From an article that appeared in tl Point Pleasant Daily Register of January 7, 1922, are tien the following extraets:

'The Point Pleasant Grocery Company has just com- pted one of the finest and best equipped wholesale-grocery bildings in the state, located at Eleventh and Viand streets, o the main line of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. The bilding has been designed with special reference to the ust economical handling of goods, and an immense amount stoek ean be handled with convenience and dispatch. I> company owns the fine flouring mill and wheat elevator Elmerly owned by the Equity Milling Company, and these wl be operated in connection with its wholesale grocery finess. We congratulate the community on this evidence business enterprise, and also the Point Pleasant Grocery Onpany upon the fruition of their well matured plans."

Ir. Evans is president and general manager of this im- tant commercial and industrial corporation, which lends sprial prestige to Point Pleasant as a distributing center, Tin J. Dower being vice president and treasurer of the upany, C. K. Blackwood, its secretary, and the directorate duding also J. S. Spencer and P. B. Buxton. The flour ni owned by the company is a substantial four-story build- with thoroughly modern equipment and facilities and wh a daily capacity for the output of 100 barrels of flour, k grain elevator having a capacity of 21,000 bushels.

Ir. Evans, who maintains his home in the City'of Park- burg, was born in Gilmer County, West Virginia, and was aid of sixteen years at the time of the family removal to E-kersburg. There he was for eighteen years associated wh the wholesale grocery house of the Shattnek & Jackson Onpany, for which he was a salesman for ten years and threafter general manager, a position from which he re- tid, later taking and maintaining a position with The Sidden-Gale Grocery Company of St. Louis, Missouri, as mager of the fancy canned goods sales department for stral years. He resigned this position to return to his finer home in Parkersburg, where he organized the Union

Merchandise Company, in the same line of business, of which he became general manager and for which he built up a large and substantial business. His record of splen- did achievement has been continued in his association with the Point Pleasant Grocery Company, which now retains five traveling salesmen, the employes in the wholesale house being twenty in number. A man who crystallizes into ae- tion his progressive ideas, Mr. Evans has become one of the leading representatives of the wholesale grocery trade in West Virginia, and is consistently to be classed among the representative "captains of industry" in his native state.

AARON THOMAS HESS, former business man and a vet- eran of the Confederate service in the war between the states, is now living virtually retired at Martinsburg, Berke- ley County, and is a citizen whose character and achievement entitle him to special recognition in this history of his na- tive state. He was born at Martinsburg, which was then a Virginia village, on the 6th of September, 1840. His fa- ther, David H. Hess, likewise was a native of Berkeley County, where his birth occurred on a pioneer farm on Tus- carora Creek. His father was born in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, and was a pioneer in Berkeley County, Vir- ginia, where he resided twenty-five years, when he removed to Logan County, Ohio, and settled on a farm in East Lib- erty Township, where he passed the remainder of his life.

The name Hess is of Swiss descent, and most of them were Lutherans and Huguenots. They came to this country from the borders of France to escape religious persecution during the reign of Queen Anne, who rescued them from Louis XIV.

David H. Hess was reared to the sturdy discipline of the farm and accompanied his parents on their removal to Ohio, but as a young man he returned to Berkeley County and purchased a farm near Martinsburg, the major part of the estate being now ineluded in the city limits. He was a successful farmer of the old times before the introduction of mowing and reaping machines and other mechanical im- provements that have transformed agricultural industry. After returning to Berkeley County Mr. Hess made several horsebaek trips to Ohio to visit his parents. He was a pro- gressive farmer, and owned and operated the first two threshing machines in Berkeley County. He operated his machines throughout Berkeley and Jefferson counties, and was thus engaged during the greater part of the recurrent winter seasons, the while he customarily received his pay in grain. On his old farm stand today many attractive resi- dences and business buildings. In the Civil war period he was taken prisoner by the forces under Gen. J. E. B. Stu- art, and with other prisoners was sent forth, under guard, on the march to Winehester. His son Aaron T., of this sketch, was then with his Confederate command near Darks- ville, and by going to Gen. Joseph E. Johnston and making a personal appeal and representation he secured the release of his father. The latter was seventy seven years of age at the time of his death. His wife, whose maiden name was Mary J. Cline, was born near Sharpsburg, Maryland, and died at the age of thirty-six years, she being survived by her husband and five children, Rayanna B., Emma E., Sarah Virginia, D. William and Aaron T. Also by two brothers John and D. Aaron Cline. The latter lived to be ninety-six years of age.

Aaron T. Hess gained his early education by attending the subscription schools during the winter terms, and in the intervening summer seasons he aided in the work of the home farm. On the 19th of April, 1861, he went forth as a loyal young soldier of the Confederacy. He became a member of the Wise Artillery in November, 1859, after the John Brown raid on Harpers Ferry, and with this command he participated in many engagements and arduous marches under Gen. Robert E. Lee. His service continued until April 9, 1865, when he was captured and taken to Point Lookout Prison, Maryland, where he received his parole on the 9th of the following July, of which he is very proud.

Aaron T. Iless' war record is numbered among those on the "honor-roll" in the Confederate Museum at Rich- mond, Virginia.

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Soon after the close of the war between the states Mr. Hess entered the employ of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company. He was soon advanced to the position of train conductor, and he continued in the service of this railroad corporation twenty-seven years. In the meanwhile he had established his wife and his son Edward L. in mercantile business at the corner of North Queen Street and Hess Avenue in Martinsburg, and they made the enterprise very successful. To assist them in the conducting of the busi- ness Mr. Hess finally felt it incumbent upon him to resign his railroad position. He was postmaster of Substation A located in his store. In 1910 his son Edward assumed full management of the business, and Mr. and Mrs. Hess have since lived retired, in the enjoyment of an attractive home and surrounded by friends who are tried and true.

At the age of thirty-three years Mr. Hess wedded Miss Elizabeth C. Staub, who was born in Martinsburg, Virginia, a daughter of Henry L. Staub, who was born and reared in Baden, Germany, and who was a young man wben, as the only representative of the immediate family to take snel action, through the advice of his uncle he came to the United States and established his residence in Martinsburg, Virginia. Three of his paternal uncles, Henry, Philip and Jacob Stanb, preceded him to America. In Martinsburg Henry L. Staub married Eva Margaret Heininger, who like- wise was born in Baden, Germany. Mr. Staub was a miller, and for a term of years followed the milling business at Martinsburg, Virginia (now West Virginia). He finally removed to Frederick County, Virginia, where he purchased an extensive farm and mill on Green Spring Run, and there he lived, near Winchester, until the close of his life, when he was seventy-three years of age. Mrs. Eva Margaret (Heininger) Staub died at the age of thirty years and six months, and was survived by four children: Mary M., Elizabeth C., John F. and Louisa Virginia. Mr. and Mrs. Hess became the parents of seven children: Edward Lee, Frank Tilden, Mary Virginia, Henry Hunter, Margaret Catherine, Carrie Leonora and Nellie Estelle.

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History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 3, Part 148

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