History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 3, Part 155

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Mr. Talbott has always been a democrat, casting h first vote for Grover Cleveland, and has been a delega to several county and state conventions. He was a spe tator at the Baltimore convention of 1912 when Woodro Wilson was first nominated. Mr. Talbott was elected member of the State Senate from the Thirteenth Senatori District in 1914. He was nominated without his solicit tion, and was elected by about 400 votes in a district nom nally republican by about 1,500. He was the only man ‹ his ticket who carried his own county, which was otherwi republican. Mr. Talbott entered the Senate during tl closing months of Governor Hatfield's administration, al served the first years of Governor Cornwell's administr tion. The Senate was republican. Mr. Talbott was member of the finance, labor, railroad and other cor mittees. He actively supported and was in a consi

Richard& Jacboth

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erable degree instrumental in securing the passage through the Senate of the Anti-Gambling Bill. It was a measure with "teeth" in it, and no doubt its enforcement has done much to reduce gambling throughout the state. Mr. Talbott voted to submit the women's suffrage question to the state, which was defeated when submitted, and he voted for the amendment to the constitution.

Mr. Talbott married Miss Etta Strickler on June 5, 1895. She was born at the old Strickler property on the corner now covered by the Citizens National Bank, and in the same house she was married to Mr. Talbott. She is a daughter of Isaac H. and Margaret (Jarvis) Strickler, being one of their family of five daughters and two sons. She was educated in the public schools of Philippi, and was a teacher for several years before her marriage. To their union have been born four children named: Margaret, Edward S., Frances Weber and Richard Kenneth.

WEBSTER WADSWORTH WAUGH. Substantially identified with the business affairs of Ripley as an automobile dealer, Mr. Waugh is an expert in all the mechanics of automotive engineering, and is a young man who has had a remarkably broad range of experience in practical affairs.

He was born near Kenna in Jackson County, February 26, 1886. His grandfather, Arthur Waugh, was a native of old Virginia. He was a physician and surgeon, a pioneer of his profession at Given, West Virginia, and later removed to Mason County, where he practiced as one of the leading doctors of his community until he died in 1863, his death being the result of a kick from a horse. His first wife, and the grandmother of W. W. Waugh, was Miss Boswell, who was born in old Virginia and died at Given, West Virginia, in 1854, at the birth of her son Samuel G. A. Waugh. Samuel G. A. Waugh was born in Jackson County, April 17, 1854, and has spent his life in this county, though for several years his father lived in Mason County. His activities have been those of a farmer, and for a number of years he also taught in the rural schools of Jackson County. He and his son Webster W. now own together a farm on Thir- teen Mile Creek. He is a republican, has served as constable of Ripley District four years, is a member of Ripley Lodge No. 16, A. F. and A. M., and was formerly active in the Odd Fellows and Knights of Pythias and at one time was an organizer of Odd Fellows lodges. Samuel G. A. Waugh married Elizabeth Brotherton, who was born in Jackson County in 1862. The oldest of their children, Edie, died in childhood; Felicia D. is a teacher in the rural schools of Jackson County and the widow of Matt Bucklew, a farmer who died as the result of accidental injuries; Onie, who died young; Amy, wife of Jesse Bass, a traveling salesman living in Mason County; William O'Connor, who was head electrician for the Scioto Stone Company at Columbus, Ohio, and was accidentally killed in a stone quarry at the age of thirty- four; Webster W .; Edgar, who died at the age of sixteen; Mamie, wife of Lloyd Crane, a farmer near Fairplain in Jackson County; Lilie, wife of Hollie Parsons, a farmer on Parchment Creek, Jackson County; Clarmont Howard, an automobile mechanic employed in the wrecking room of the Ford Automobile Company at Columbus, Ohio; Harry, a farmer at Given in Jackson County; Beulah and Bernice, twins, the former at home and the latter dying in infancy.

Webster W. Waugh spent the first sixteen years of his life on his father's farm. Besides making use of the advantages of the common schools he has perfected his varied knowledge through extensive experience and read- ing and study at home. After leaving home he worked three years in Ohio for the Toledo & Ohio Central, Kanawha & Michigan and the Hocking Valley railroads, for. two months was at work for the Coal & Coke Rail- road at Charleston, West Virginia, for three months fired a stationary boiler for a tunnel company at Gassaway, West Virginia, for three months was a stone chipper on a lock on the Cuyahoga River in Ohio, then foreman of a stripping gang in a quarry at Columbus four months,

and for two years was a municipal employe at Columbus doing landscape work and tree pruning. He then changed scenes by going to the Pacific Northwest, and for three months drove a delivery wagon in Spokane. For two months he ran a concrete mixer at Tulsa, Oklahoma, and on returning to Columbus, Ohio, was car repairer in stone quarries six months, and for three months was employed in curing tires in the Diamond Rubber Com- pany's works at Akron. Following that he returned home, and for six months operated the home farm on Thirteen Mile Creek. He was next fireman on a steam shovel at Columbus nine months, then operated a crane for a sand and gravel company at Columbus six months, and craned a shovel at Pickaway, Ohio, five months and worked on general repairs for the Marble Cliff Quarry Company at Columbus two years. He then took another job craning a shovel at Connellsville, Pennsylvania, two months, following which he operated a shovel at West Pittsburgh eight months. This brings his record down to 1916. For seven months following he was master me- chanie on a concrete job at Kensington, Ohio. For about a year after that Mr. Waugh operated a farm on Parch- ment Creek in his home county, and after a seven weeks' course in the Y. M. C. A. Automobile School in Columbus he was granted a diploma and in April, 1919, entered the automobile business at Ripley, associated with A. S. McCoy in the ownership of a public garage on Court Street. This firm sells and repairs automobiles and handles automobile accessories, and has the leading busi- ness of the kind in this part of Jackson County.

Mr. Waugh owns his home on Court Street. He is a republican and a member of Ivory Lodge No. 394, F. and A. M., at Hillyard, Ohio. May 9, 1915, at Given, he married Miss Ina Myrtle Maddox, daughter of Charles D. and Belle (Hill) Maddox, farmers near Givens.

FRED D. WOLFE spent many years as a farmer and teacher in West Virginia, but in recent years has found pleasant and congenial responsibilities as editor and publisher of The Mountaineer at Ripley, one of the three newspapers of Jackson County and the official organ of the demo- cratic party for the county.

Mr. Wolfe was born at Given in Jackson County, De- cember 14, 1879. The Wolfe family is of English an- cestry. His grandfather, Abraham Wolfe, was born in Lewis County, West Virginia, in 1806, and as a young man removed to the Given community of Jackson County, where he spent his active life as a farmer and where he died in 1899. At Given he married Miss Mary Boswell. They were the parents of ten children, and those now living are: Nehemiah S .; Margaret, wife of Levi Moore, a farmer at Given; and Abraham, a farmer at Given.

Nehemiah S. Wolfe has spent all his active life as a successful farmer at Given, where he was born February 14, 1838, but since 1919 has lived retired at Ripley with his son Fred. He is a democrat, and is affiliated with R. S. Brown Lodge, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, at Rock Castle. Nehemiah Wolfe married Victoria C. Smith, who was born at Letart, Ohio, in 1841 and died at Given in 1913. She represented a very historical family, being a great- granddaughter of Gen. Andrew Lewis. Gen. Andrew Lewis was one of the sons of John A. Lewis, a Scotch-Irishman who came from Ireland to America in Colonial times. John A Lewis married Lady Lynn. They lived on the frontier in the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia. It was Lady Lynn Lewis who was the distinguished heroine of the frontier who dismissed her four sons with the words "Go, keep back the foot of the invader or see my face no more," and these sons all bore an honorable share in the struggle for inde- pendence. The sons Gen. Andrew Lewis and Charles Lewis were officers in the battle of Point Pleasant on October 10, 1774, a battle that many historians claim marked the begin- ning of the Revolutionary war. Nehemiah Wolfe and wife had the following children: Cora, who died at Fairplain, wife of Benjamin F. Crites, now a merchant at Ripley ; Austin Monroe, a farmer at Given; Edward L., a merchant at Dunbar in Kanawha County; Clinton, who was an at- torney and died at Ripley in 1900; Lewis V., a merchant

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at Dunbar; Fred D .; Helen, wife of Luther A. Parsons, a farmer at Alice, Ohio; and Mary Augusta, wife of Alva Moore, a boiler maker living at Macon, Georgia.

Fred D. Wolfe attended the rural schools of Jackson County and the Ohio Valley College at Ravenswood to the age of nineteen. For the first thirty-four years of his life he made his home on his father's farm. His work as a teacher was begun in the Given school when he was eighteen. He taught in that school four years, and his record as an educator is spread over a period of nineteen years, during which time he taught in Jackson, Tyler, Logan, Mingo, Kanawha and Putnam counties. In 1917 Mr. Wolfe went on the road as traveling representative for the Dana Grocery Company of Ripley and for two years sold goods in portions of Mason, Jackson and Roane counties.

November 17, 1919, he accepted the post of editor and manager of The Mountaineer at Ripley. This paper was established in 1892, and is a well edited journal, circulated in most of the homes of Jackson and surrounding counties, and is owned by The Mountaineer Company, the plant and offices being on Front Street in Ripley. W. L. Y. Currey, of Sandyville, is president; Kenna K. Hyre, of Ripley, is secretary ; while the editor and publisher is Fred D. Wolfe.

Mr. Wolfe is a democrat, a member of Ripley Lodge No. 16, A. F. and A. M., and a past chancellor of Walker Wright Lodge No. 95, Knights of Pythias. During the war he sustained his share of activities in behalf of the various drives, and personally he tried to enlist at Parkers- burg, but was rejected partly on account of his age and partly because of his dependents.

September 22, 1915, in Jackson County, he married Miss Cleo Rawling, daughter of Luke A. and Ella (Winter) Rawling, farmers in the Fairplain community of Jackson County. Mr. and Mrs. Wolfe have two children: Dana, born October 16, 1916, and Dona, born December 20, 1920.

JOHN E. ARBUCKLE is the eashier of the Kanawha Union Bank at Glenville, Gilmer County, a well ordered institu- tion that is a state depository and that effectively safeguards and advances the business and civic interests of the eom- munity in which it is established. The bank bases its oper- ations upon a capital stock of $40,000, has a surplus fund of equal amount, its nndivided profits are in excess of $6,000, and its deposits are nearly $600,000. S. A. Hays is president of the Bank, C. M. Bennett is vice president, John E. Arbuekle is cashier, and L. D. Zinn is assistant eashier. Besides the president, vice president and cashier the directorate of the institution includes also James H. Arbuckle. Jacob Moore, John S. Withers, A. L. Holt, G. B. Reed and N. E. Rymer.

John E. Arbuekle was born in the Village of Troy, Gilmer County, West Virginia, on the 24th of February, 1879, and is a son of James H. and Margaret E. (MeClintock) Ar- buekle. the former of whom was born in what is now Green- brier County, this state. in 1846, and the latter of whom was born in Bath County. Virginia, both families having early heen founded in the Old Dominion State. James H. Arbuckle was for many years engaged in the general mer- chandise business at Troy, and is one of the venerable and substantial eitizens of Gilmer County, with inviolable place in popular confidence and esteem. He was a Confederate soldier in the Civil war, is affiliated with the United Con- federate Veterans and the Independent Order of Odd Fel- lows, and both he and his wife are zealous members of the Presbyterian Church. Of the six children five are living: Eustice M .. who graduated in the West Virginia State Normal School at Glenville. now resides at Parkersburg. this state, and is in the United States internal revenue service ; John E., of this sketch, is the next in order of birth ; Miss Alice C. remains at the parental home, at Glenville ; J. Earl, a graduate of the normal school at Glenville, is one of the prosperous farmers and stock-growers of Gilmer County ; and Alma J., a graduate of the State Normal Sehool at Glenville, is now a successful and popular teacher in this institution.

John E. Arbuckle acquired his youthful education in the publie schools of Troy, and in 1901, shortly after attaining to his legal majority, he took a position as bookeeper

for the Little Kanawha Valley Bank at Glenville. Later he was chosen cashier of the bank, and in this executive position he continued his efficient service from 1904 to 1906, in which latter year that institution was consolidated with the First National Bank of Glenville, under the present corporate title of the Kanawha Union Bank, and he was made cashier of the new institution, to the success of which he has contributed much by his careful and progressive policies. He is one of the representative business men of his native connty, and here his circle of friends is limited only by that of his acquaintances. He and his brother are the owners of a valuable landed estate of 1,500 acres in Gilmer County, and he has capitalistic interests also in gas and oil production and also coal mining in this section of the state. Mr. Arbuckle is a past master of Gihner County Lodge No. 118, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and at Weston he is affiliated with the Chapter of Royal Arch Masons and the Commandery of Knights Templar, the while he has received the thirty-second degree of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite of Masonry and is a member also of the Mystic Shrine and the Order of the Eastern Star. In polities he is found arrayed as a loyal supporter of the cause of the democratie party. Both he and his wife are members of the Presbyterian Church at Glenville, and he is serving as an elder in the same.

On the 6th of October, 1909, was solemnized the mar- riage of Mr. Arbuekle and Miss Mildred Ruddell, who was, born and reared in Gilmer County and who was graduated from the musical department of the Mary Baldwin Semi- nary at Staunton, Virginia, she having there received the gold medal awarded for special proficiency in musie. Mr. and Mrs. Arbuckle have no children living, but they have one danghter dead.

W. FROST BROWN is one of the younger business men of Charleston, and is president, treasurer and general manager of the Brown Milling & Produce Company. This firm was organized in 1911 and incorporated in February of that year. The business has grown into a successful enterprisc, embracing the manufacture of meal and feed, as well as jobbing at wholesale flour, grain, hay, produce, fruits, etc. The firm has recently added a line of wholesale groceries, and handles an important share of the business in these different commodities distributed and consumed over the southern end of the state, particularly in the coal fields. They also supply jobbers in mill products outside of the state.

Owing to the steady growth of the business it was re- eently found necessary to greatly increase their facilities and enlarge their plant. Mr. Brown is justly proud of the new plant just completed by his firm, which started operation in June. 1922, and is the culmination of years of effort and the realization of an ambition to possess the most modern and complete corn mill and feed manufactur- ing plant in the State of West Virginia. In faet, it is said by authorities to be the highest type of plant of its kind in the country, and while not as large as some plants in western states. it is excelled by none in modern machinery, efficient and economieal operation and high quality of the manufactured products.

The new additions to the plant are all of the most modern construction, and consist of fireproof reinforced steel and concrete grain elevators, with a capacity of 50.000 bushels of grain; a five story mill building with a daily grinding eapaeity of 2.000 bushels of pearl meal, 250 tons of ground corn feed and 200 tons of mixed stoek feeds; a complete cold storage department. with more than 50,000 cubic feet of space, and a steel and eonerete warehouse building more than 200 feet in length. The ground space occupied by the entire plant is 90 by 202 feet, located on the tracks of the Kanawha & Michigan Railway at Broad Street, with ample siding facilities and switching arrangements with all other railroads for the prompt handling of ear load ship- ments.

The entire plant is electrically operated and is equipped throughout with the latest and most modern machinery it was possible to procure. The present investment in the plant is in the neighborhood of a quarter of a million dol-

N.Bembridge Payne

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rs, and there are about fifty employes, ten of whom are lesmen covering the territory in which this firm operates. W. Frost Brown was born at Mount Carmel, Pennsyl- nia, October 26, 1881, and came to Charleston with his rents in 1893. His father, William N. Brown, was well town in the Kanawha and New River coal fields, having en superintendent of many operations and largely in- rumental in developing new coal properties and inducing large amount of foreign capital to invest in the coal stricts of West Virginia. He died at Charleston in 1911, here his widow still resides. He was a Pennsylvania Idier in the Civil war, and was commander of the local ost of the G. A. R., state adjutant general of the same ganization, and actively connected with many religious id fraternal organizations.

W. Frost Brown was educated in the public schools at harleston, and after leaving school was connected with e Kanawha & Michigan Railway for a number of years, lding various important positions in the local and general fices until he resigned in 1906, while chief clerk to the neral freight agent at Charleston. He then entered the erehandise brokerage business, in which he was success- illy engaged until 1911, when he organized the present rm, of which he is the head.

His brother, George F. Brown, is vice president and as- stant manager of the company, and is buyer and manager : sales.

This business has met Mr. Brown's most sanguine ex- ectations and is recognized as one of the most enterprising : the many substantial concerns of the capital city. He

also interested in the milling industry at other places itside of the state. Mr. Brown has always taken an active terest in civic and commercial affairs, and has served for veral years as a director and for one term as president f the Charleston Chamber of Commerce. He married Miss ula L. Botkin, of Charleston, and they have two daughters, Tildred Frost and Barbara Louise. Mr. and Mrs. Brown re members of the First Presbyterian Church.

WILLIAM BURBRIDGE PAYNE became in 1890 deputy clerk : the Circuit Court at Welch, McDowell County, and two ars later, in 1892, he was elected clerk of this court, by majority of 500 votes. He was later re-elected, by a ajority of 1,500 votes, and each successive election gave im an increased majority. His last election was in 1920, nd at his death early in 1922 he had almost five years to rve. He was the dean of the Circuit Court clerks of Test Virginia, and his long service offers the best testi- onial to his efficiency and his personal popularity.

Mr. Payne was born in Crane Ridge, Sandy River District, IcDowell County, August 28, 1866, son of John D. and lara (Cornett) Payne, the former of whom was born in ig Creek District, McDowell County, in 1836, and the itter of whom was born in Johnson County, Tennessee, 'ebruary 5, 1841. The father's death occurred December , 1898, and that of the mother on the 11th of June, 1919. During the infancy of William Burbridge the family re- hoved to Wyoming County, and while a resident of that ounty John D. Payne served as a member of the Lower louse of the State Legislature, as representative of the istrict comprising Raleigh, Wyoming and McDowell ounties. John D. Payne was a man of exceptional ability, nd proved successful as a teacher, a merchant and a armer, besides which he became a representative member f the bar of Wyoming County and in 1888 was elected Prosecuting attorney of that county. He was a loyal soldier f the Union in the Civil war, in which he served four ears and nineteen days and gained the rank of sergeant. Ie was in the command of Colonel Burbridge, in whose onor he named his son, and he took part in numerous ngagements, including the battles of Lexington and Cyn- hiana, Kentucky, and Puncheon Creek. Prior to entering ervice he had been wounded, a bushwhacker lying in am- ush having shot him in the back. His father, Simeon Payne, was one of the early settlers of Monroe County. John D. Payne was one of the early settlers of Monroe County. He was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, while his wife was a member of the Bap-

tist Church. His political allegiance was given to the republican party, and he was a member of the Grand Army of the Republic. Mr. Payne was interested in the devel- opment of coal lands in this section of the state and was a citizen of prominence and influence in his community. Mr. and Mrs. Payne became the parents of three sons, of whom William B. was the eldest. David is a prosperous merchant at Mile Branch, McDowell County, and has served as deputy sheriff of the county. Wilburn Grant, the youngest son, died at the age of twenty-three years.

The "temple of learning" in which W. Burbridge Payne gained his initial education was a log structure of the pioneer type, and thereafter he continued his studies hy attending the State Normal School at Athens. He taught two terms of school in MeDowell County and then became a partner of his father in the conducting of a general store in the village of Bradshaw, this county, and this partnership continued for many years, the father having active charge of the store. Mr. Payne had made an excel- lent record as a substantial business man prior to being called into public office. He was a member of the Masonic Lodge in his home city of Welch, of the Royal Arch Chap- ter at Northfork, of Ivanhoe Commandery of Knights Templars at Bramwell, and of Scottish Rite bodies and the Mystic Shrine in Cincinnati, Ohio. He was one of the organizers and stockholders of the McDowell National Bank at Welch, and was a director of the Welch Insurance Agency. He was a stalwart in the local camp of the republican party, and he attended and supported the Presbyterian Church, of which his wife is a member.

May 20, 1896, recorded the marriage of Mr. Payne and Miss Jennie Beavers, who was born in South Dakota, a daughter of Alexander and Mary Ann (Wynn) Beavers. Mrs. Payne during her married life has in addition to rearing her family of children been a helpful factor in her husband's official work, and had the experience of a deputy in his office until his death, and on account of the qualifications of that experience she was appointed by Judge I. C. Herndon, the official successor of her husband, to fill out his unexpired term.

Of the children the eldest is Hobart Elkins, who is a graduate of the Ohio Military Institute at Cincinnati and who was ready for service in the World war, is an assistant in the Circuit Clerk's office; Meldrum Dean is at home; Miriam Joyce, the first daughter, died in child- hood; William Burbridge, Jr., is, in 1921-2, attending the Ohio Military Institute at Cincinnati; and Bernice, is the youngest member of the parental home circle.

DANIEL N. MOHLER. Member of a family long prom- inently identified with the lumber and financial affairs of West Virginia, Daniel N. Mohler chose the law as his vocation, and his early years of practice have earned him a fine reputation in the bar of Charleston.

His father is William E. Mohler, a well known capitalist, banker and lumberman of St. Albans. William E. Moller was born in Augusta County, Virginia, July 14, 1852, son of D. F. and Ellen E. (Silling) Mohler. D. F. Mohler was born in the same county about 1832, and spent the greater part of his life as a lumberman. At the begin- ning of the Civil war he secured a contract to construct wagons for the Confederate government, operating his fac- tory the first two years and during the remainder he manu- factured iron for the government. He owned the second sawmill in Augusta County.

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History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 3, Part 155

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