History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 3, Part 164

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Mr. Keatley is president and a large stockholder of the Virginian Electric & Machine Works, one of Charleston's leading industrial establishments. This business is manu- facturing and jobbing in electrical and other machinery for mines and mining industries.

In a very noteworthy degree Mr. Keatley's career has been one of public service, a service identified with the broader interests of both state and nation. During the World war, in fact throughout the two years of America 's participation, he gave his time and abilities unstinted and gratis to the Government as chief clerk of the Southern District Draft Board, which included twenty-seven counties in West Virginia. He had a staff of fourteen clerks, and through his office were handled the registration, classifica- tion and examination of 90 000 men.

For several years Mr. Keatley has been a leader in the Charleston Chamber of Commerce, which he served one term as president, two terms as a member of the board of direc- tors, and is now national councillor representing this body in the Chamber of Commerce of the United States at Washington.

Mr. Keatley is a member of the State Capitol Commis- sion of West Virginia. This is the commission to which has been entrusted the selection of a site and the construction of a new state capitol to replace the one burned in January, 1921. Through the efforts of the commission West Vir- ginia is assured for the first time in its history as a state of a really dignified and impressive capitol building. The designer of the new capitol is Cass Gilbert of New York, who designed the Woolworth Building and many other famous structures.

Reference has been made to the fact that Mr. Keatley is the present speaker of the House of Delegates in the State Legislature. He was elected a member of the Legislature in 1920, on the republican ticket, to represent Kanawha County. In the first session of that body he received the unusual honor of being made speaker, a distinction seldom conferred upon any but old-time members, and in itself a distinctive if not unique honor to the character of Mr. Keatley as a public man.

Among his many sided activities it would be appropriate for Mr. Keatley to regard his most beneficent work as that in connection with the American Constitutional Association of West Virginia, of which he is president. This organ- ization is due principally to his efforts and began its program in 1920. It purposes to teach good citizenship according to the principles and ideals of the American Republic, and to counteract radicalism and all other forces that are inimical to justice and good order. Its work is being done primarily through the public school system of the state, and the instruction fostered by the American Con- stitutional Association is directed by one of the bureaus of the State Board of Education. Various publications are issued, and one of the objects of the association is to have a regular school text book on citizenship and Americaniza- tion. The association now has between 800 and 900 mem- bers throughout the state, representing the very best citizen- ship, and there is a pressing need for such work in West

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irginia, where entire districts are made up of industrial pulation.

Mr. Keatley has served as a vestryman of St. John's piscopal Church at Charleston. He is chairman of the ate Council of the National Association of Credit Men, a Knight Templar and Scottish Rite Mason and Shriner, member of the Edgewood Country Club of Charleston id a director of the Rotary Club.

His first wife was Alethia MeCreery, daughter of John . McCreery, of Beckley, West Virginia. She was the other of his four older children: Mrs. S. S. Rutherford,

Detroit, Michigan; Capt. Edwin E. Keatley, of the nited States Army, now stationed with the Sixty-fifth fantry at San Juan, Porto Rico; John W., who served ght months in the Marine Corps, is a student in the Uni- rsity of Michigan, and a prominent athlete; and Miss eta Keatley.

For his present wife Mr. Keatley married Lenore Gos- ig, daughter of Rev. B. F. Gosling, a clergyman of the uthern Methodist Church. To this marriage were born ree children, Richard Hagan, Gordon William and Eliza- th Swallow Keatley.

QUIN MORTON, who is a former president of the Kanawha al Operators Association, has been in the coal industry West Virginia a quarter of a century, and his activities w and in the past give him a position among the most tensive coal operators of the state.

Mr. Morton was born at Charlotte Court House, Virginia, 1857, son of D. H. and Joanna (Cabell) Morton, natives the Old Dominion. His maternal grandfather, Brecken- Ige Cabell, was a member of the very historic Virginia mily of that name. During the Civil war the Morton me was in the direct path of devastation, and at the end the war little remained but the bare land. Under such cumstances Quin Morton, who in normal times would have d the environment and advantages of a son of well-to-do rginia parents, had to go to work early in life, and he me to know something of hard times, with few opportuni- 's for earning money. Though his school advantages were united, he passed the necessary examination for a first ade certificate and began teaching between the ages of ghteen and nineteen. Two years prior to that time he had come a resident of West Virginia, in Greenbrier County. ; the age of twenty-two he married, then entered the ercantile business at Ronceverte, traveled on the road a w years, and was cashier of the Bank of Ronceverte.

His first connection with the coal industry came in 1896, bookkeeper for the Turkey Knob Coal Company, oper- ing in the New River District in Fayette County. His dustry and ability brought new and increased responsibili- s with this company, and in 1903 he became an individual erator through organizing the Morton Coal Company on int Creek in Kanawha County. After operating it for Feral years he sold the property in 1906. and then became neral manager for the Imperial Colliery Company at irnwell in Kanawha County. In 1911 Mr. Morton organ- ed the Christian Colliery Company at Mahan in Fayette unty, serving as its general manager, and was also gen- al manager of the Imperial Colliery Company at the same ne. He organized in 1914 the Imperial Coal Sales Com- ny, and performed the duties of general manager of this rporation as well. He acquired in 1915 interests in the al Valley Mining Company, becoming president of the mpany. About that time he severed his connection with e Christian Colliery Company and the Imperial Colliery mpany, though retaining an interest in the Imperial Coal les Company.

Mr. Morton in 1916 bought an interest in the Peytonia ining Company, and was its president until. he sold out 1920. In the fall of 1916 Mr. Morton, in association th W. S. Wood, organized the Wood Coal Company, of ich Mr. Wood is president and Mr. Morton, a director. the same time they organized the Hopkins Fork Coal mpany, still operating, and of which Mr. Morton was the st president, and is still a director. These partners in 18 organized the American Eagle Colliery Company, of ich Mr. Morton is a director. In 1919 they organized the

Leevale Coal Company, of which Mr. Wood is president and Mr. Morton, secretary and treasurer. Mr. Morton in January, 1920, severed his connection with the Imperial Coal Sales Company and organized the Wood-Morton Fuel Company, of which he is president. He is also a director of the Stonecastle Coal Company and the Imperial Smoke- less Coal Company at Quinwood, West Virginia.

Mr. Morton several times was honored with election as president of the Kanawha Coal Operators Association. Up to 1916 he kept his home at the mines, giving his personal supervision to the practical side of the industry. In that year he removed with his family to Charleston. He has been a director of the National Coal Association since its organ- ization, is a member of the Charleston Chamber of Com- merce and is a Knight Templar Mason and Shriner. Mr. Morton married Miss Fannie Hurthal, of Philadelphia. They have five surviving children and eighteen grandehil- dren. These children are Helen, Mrs. O. A. Wilson; D. H. Morton; Joanna, wife of H. A. Hereford; F. H. Morton; Fannie M., wife of Ward Boldin.

LEIGH H. HARRISON is a Charleston business man, has been in the state for twenty years, and throughout this time has sold great quantities of mining machinery to the mining companies and corporations operating in all the coal district. Mr. Harrison is manager of the Goodman Manu- facturing Company.

He was born at Paw Paw, Van Buren County, Michigan, in 1868, son of T. R. and Rhoda (Emory) Harrison, his father a native of New Haven, Connecticut, and his mother of Vermont. T. R. Harrison was a man of great brilliance, and made a notable record as a scholar, educator and jour- nalist. He graduated from Yale before reaching his eighteenth year. After leaving Yale he went to Michigan and was principal of the Battle Creek schools, where many of the pupils were as old as was he. Later for about a decade he was publisher of an anti-slavery paper at Paw Paw, one of the oldest journals in the state today.

Leigh H. Harrison was well educated in the public schools and higher institutions, attending the State Agricultural College at Lansing, Michigan. On leaving that state he removed to Chicago, and in 1890 entered the machinery busi- ness, eventually becoming associated with the Goodman Manufacturing Company of Chicago, manufacturers of machinery for mining and other industrial uses. Mr. Har- rison was salesman for this firm, and in 1900 was trans- ferred to Charleston as headquarters, with management of sales for his company in West Virginia territory. He not only looks after the sales but also the installation of coal mining machinery. In 1902 Charleston was constituted a regular branch office of the company, with Mr. Harrison as manager, and this pleasant and profitable connection has heen continued now for twenty years. His business brings him into close touch with the great coal mining industry of the state, and he has many intimate friends among the prominent coal operators.

Mr. Harrison is a member of the Rotary Club, the Cham- her of Commerce, and the First Presbyterian Church of Charleston. He married Miss Josephine Evans, of Colum- bus, Ohio.

HON. C. C. COALTER has given nearly a quarter of his life- time to the public service of his state in the State Senate. However, this has been his only political office, and in his home community of Hinton he is best known as a successful miller and business man.

He has been a member of the State Senate since 1912, and is now in his third term. The Seventh District, which he represents, comprises the counties of Mercer, Monroe, Raleigh and Summers, two of these being the heaviest coal producing counties in the United States. He is the only republican ever elected three consecutive terms to the Senate, and as a result he is now the oldest member in con- tinuous service in the Senate, though in point of years he is one of the youngest members. Senator Coalter is not an orator, and his work in the Senate has been distinguished rather by the business judgment he has brought to bear in the committee rooms. He has served on many of the im-

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portant committees, including the committee on railroads, of which he was chairman in 1917-19, and has also been a member of the important committees of mines and mining, finance, banks and corporations.

C. C. Coalter was born on a farm in Monroe County, five miles south of Alderson, on Wolf Creek, September 25, 1879, son of John A. and Emma (Foster) Coalter. His parents now live retired at Muskogee, Oklahoma, his father at the age of sixty-six and his mother at sixty-five. John A. Coalter 'is a millwright by trade, and he built and operated flour mills in many localities in West Virginia and also in Texas. In West Virginia he owned and operated the Wolf Creek Roller Mills, the Nickells Mills and the Greenbrier Roller Mills. In 1908 he moved from Monroe County to Wilburton, Oklahoma, and later went to Roswell, New Mexico, where he was in the wholesale grocery business. From there he moved to Muskogee, and has been a very successful business man. He is a Mason, a republican and a Baptist. The mother of Senator Coalter is a sister of the late George B. Foster, a distinguished biblieal scholar, an- thor and professor in the University of Chicago. Senator Coalter is the oldest of three children. His sister Georgia is the wife of William Given, of Wolf Creek and his sister Elizabeth is the wife of Owen Leach, of Roswell, New Mexico.

Carl C. Coalter attended free schools in Monroe County, his education being meager. He was a farm boy and learned to do every kind of farm work. At the age of sixteen he went into the Nickells Mills of his father and he was soon put in charge of the night shift in a fifty barrel mill. At the age of eighteen he came to Hinton, and for several years had charge of the Hinton Milling Company's plant. This mill was burned, but was rebuilt in 1912. He is gen- eral manager and treasurer of the Hinton Milling Company, and since 1906 has also had charge of the Standard Oil Company's business at Hinton, and is president of the Hill- ton Water, Light and Supply Company.

In 1906 Mr. Coalter married Cora Graham. She is a member of the Baptist Church. Senator Coalter is a past exalted ruler of the Elks and a past commander of the Knights of Pythias.

ELMER WAITMAN COOK, vice president and cashier of the First National Bank in the industrial Village of Jaeger, MeDowell County, was born at Oceana, Wyoming County, West Virginia, March 24, 1896, and is a son of Robert Lee and Mary (Conley) Cook, both likewise natives of Wyoming County and now residents of Williamson, Mingo County. Robert L. Cook became editor and pub- lisher of the Wyoming Herald at Oceana, which later be- came the Independent-Herald, and subsequently he was identified with newspaper enterprise at Pineville. He is now connected with the Mingo County Republican at William- son. His father, Capt. James A. Cook, was an officer of the Confederate service in the Civil war, and was eighty years of age at the time of his death. The family early settled in Wyoming County, and the family name was one of prominence in the civic and material development and progress of that county.

Elmer W. Cook, the eldest in a family of seven children, of whom two sons and four daughters are living, gained his early education in the public schools at Oceana and Pine- ville, his discipline including the curriculum of the high school. At the age of seventeen years he became bookkeeper in the First National Bank of Pineville. He later held a position in the First National Bank of Martinsville, Vir- ginia, and next became assistant cashier of the Clark Na- tional Bank at Northfork, McDowell County, West Vir- ginia. After leaving this bank he held the position of bookkeeper for the Traders Coal Company at War Eagle, Mingo County, and in 1919 he became one of the organizers of the First National Bank of Iaeger, of which he has since been vice president and cashier-one of the youngest bank executives in West Virginia and one who has made a splen- did record. He is a steward of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, in his home village, and his wife is a member of the Presbyterian Church.

In 1917 Mr. Cook wedded Miss Nathalie Morris, daughter

of N. R. Morris, of Martinsville, Virginia, and the tv children of this union are Nathalie Elizabeth and Sallie.

JAMES M. CLARK. As may be readily understood, t profession of mining engineer is one of major importan in connection with the industrial activities of West V ginia, and here one of the leading representatives of tl profession is James M. Clark, senior member of Clark Krebs, Inc., civil and mining engineers, with headquarte in the City of Charleston.

Mr. Clark was born on a farm near Westfield, Uni County, New Jersey, April 6, 1866, aud is a son of the la James L. and Hannah Clark. He received his early educ tion in the schools of his native state, and in April, 188 the month in which he attained his legal majority, he can to West Virginia and entered the employ of his cousi Robert G. Goodrich, a leading mining engineer at th time residing in Fayette County. It was in this conne tion that Mr. Clark received his technical and practical e perience in mining engineering. In 1890 he and his cous entered into professional partnership, under the firm nan of Goodrich & Clark, with headquarters at Elkhorn, M Dowell County. Two years later Mr. Clark retired from th firm and engaged independently in practice as a gener mining engineer, with headquarters at Kanawha Falls. ( the 1st of January, 1900, he formed a partnership wi Charles E. Krebs, and in November, 1908, the firm esta lished its office headquarters in the City of Charleston, t] firm being now incorporated and its business being of broa scope and importance. In 1915 Mr. Clark was appointe city engineer of Charleston, and within his term of servi in this office nearly $1,000,000 worth of street paving wi done and the city levee wall on Kanawha Street was co structed.

Mr. Clark is a scion of a family that was founded America in the early Colonial days and that gave patri soldiers to the war of the Revolution. He is affiliated wit the Society of the Sons of the American Revolution as charter member of the West Fields Chapter of the Ne Jersey Society. He is a charter member of the Kiwan Club at Charleston, and here is a deacon in the First Pre byterian Church.

On the 18th of September, 1895, was solemnized the ma riage of Mr. Clark and Miss Pattie Farley, of Kanawł Falls, and she passed to the life eternal in November, 192 her surviving children being four in number: James M Jr., is in 1922 a student in the University of Cincinnati Ohio; Lawrence Willis and Frances Alden graduated fro the Charleston High School as members of the class of 1921 and Nancy Margaret is a member of the class of 1923 i the high school.

HAROLD P. TOMPKINS. The family represented by th prominent coal and gas operator and land owner nes Charleston has been one of historical distinction in th Kanawha Valley for three generations. The old Tompkir home at Cedar Grove in Kanawha County, where Harol P. Tompins and his father were both born, has been od cupied by the family since 1844, and during the Civil war was used as a base hospital.

The pioneer of the family and a prominent character o his day in West Virginia was William Tompkins, the fire to develop the salt resources of the Kanawha Valley. Hil tory gives him credit as being the first man in the world t utilize natural gas for industrial or other purposes. H had started in the salt industry at Burning Springs i 1832. Burning Springs it will be recalled was the scene o the first commercial oil development in the state. Whil there he noted gas escaping from the ground, and conceive the idea of using this gas for heating the kettles in hi salt works. In carrying out this idea he invented th present system of drilling gas and oil wells by devising drill with a jar surface. He ran the gas under his kettle with wooden pipes.

In 1844 William Tompkins removed to Cedar Grove, wher he continued his salt making operations. He was a man 0 great force of character and indomitable energy. As a bo; he was bound out to a farmer, but with a broader ambition

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for his future he ran away at the age of sixteen and came to Kanawha County. He became an extensive land owner, accumulating 27,000 acres of land in the Steele Survey, this being purchased at $2 an acre. William Tompkins married a sister of Jesse Grant, father of Gen. U. S. Grant. General Grant while a student at West Point spent his vacations at the Tompkins estate. Another prominent member of the family was Col. C. C. Tompkins, great uncle of Harold P. Tompkins. Colonel Tompkins was the first commander of Confederate troops in the Kanawha Valley, being succeeded in that command by Governor Wise of Virginia.

Harold P. Tompkins was born at Cedar Grove in 1888, oldest son of H. Preston and Addie L. (Elswick) Tomp- kins, both of Scotch-Irish descent. His mother is still living at Cedar Grove. H. Preston Tompkins, who died in 1907, was a life-long resident of Kanawha County and a very substantial business mau.

Harold P. Tompkins graduated from Marshall College in Huntington in 1908, and then spent two years in the Uni- versity of West Virginia at Morgantown. Leaving school in 1910, he entered the coal and gas business, and has been one of the leading coal and gas operators and developers of these natural resources in the Kanawha Valley, with head- quarters in the Charleston National Bank Building. His mining and land interests are near Cedar Grove and vicinity. Mr. Tompkins built both towns of Cedar Grove and Glas- gow, secured the location of various industries there, and his influence with capital and business men and his personal enterprise have had much to do with the develop- ment of that rich section.

Mr. Tompkins, a progressive republican in politics, is one of the very active members of the Charleston Kiwauis Club, helongs to the Chamber of Commerce, and to the various coal and gas associations, is a Mason and a member of the First Methodist Episcopal Church, Sonth. On November 14, 1913, he married Miss Mary Midkiff, a native of Charles- ton. Their three children are Harold Preston, Jr., William Grant and Betty Lee.

Mr. Tompkins is a brother of Mrs. Rachel Tompkins Set- tle, of Pineville, Kentucky, and of Roger W., Grant C. and Helen A. Tompkins, all of whom live in the old home place at Cedar Grove.

W. BRANCH YOUNG, M. D., is giving effective professional service as physician and surgeon for the Crozer Coal & Coke Company, the Turkey Gap Coal & Coke Company, and the Upland Coal & Coke Company, with headquarters at Elk- horn, McDowell County, where he has also a substantial general practice aside from these connections.

Doctor Young was born at Union, Monroe County, West Virginia, April 16, 1882, and is a son of W. Preston Young and Rebecca Jane (Early) Young, both natives of Virginia, in which state the respective families were founded many generations ago, the Young family being of German and English ancestry and the Early family of Scotch and Irish genealogy. W. Preston Young became one of the substan- tial and representative farmers of Monroe County, West Virginia. was influential in public affairs of local order, and was serving as county assessor at the time of his death, in 1888. He was a gallant young soldier of the Confederacy in the Civil war, in which he served as first lieutenant of Company A, Sixtieth Virginia Infantry. At the battle of Cold Harbor he received a severe wound in one of his hips, and he thereafter passed four months in a hospital.

After attending the public schools at Union, Monroe County, Doctor Young continued his studies in Alleghany Institute at Clifton Forge, where he took a two years' academic course. In 1911 he graduated from the Maryland Medical College in the City of Baltimore, and after thus receiving his degree of Doctor of Medicine he was associated with Doctor Clark in the practice of his profession at Algoma, McDowell County, about six months. Since the spring of 1912 he has been engaged in practice at Elkhorn, where he is official physician and surgeon, also for the three coal and coke companies above mentioned, besides which he is local surgeon for the Norfolk & Western Rail- road. He maintains well equipped offices, operating room and dispensary, and has gained high repute as a skilled

surgeon. In 1916 he took an effective courso in the New York Post-Graduate Medical School. He is an active mem- ber of the American Medical Association, the West Virginia State Medical Society, the McDowell County Medical So- eiety, and the Phi Chi medical college fraternity. He is affiliated also with the Masonic fraternity.

At Sweet Springs, Monroe County, in 1911, Doctor Young wedded Miss Mabel Beckner, daughter of F. L. and Amanda (Baker) Beckner, her father being a prosper- ous agriculturist and stock-grower in that county. Doctor and Mrs. Young have two children: Elizabeth and Wil- liam B.

Doctor Young is a liberal and progressive citizen and takes lively interest in all things touching the welfare of his community, but he has had no desire for public office of any kind.

SIEGEL WORKMAN, United States marshal for the South- ern Judicial District, is not only a very capable official, but one of the most efficient men and good citizens of Boone County. For years he has been one of the leading repub- licans of this part of the state, and his wife is also effec- tively interested in public matters. He was born in Boone County, December 10, 1880, a son of John L. aud Harriet L. (White) Workman, natives of Giles County, Virginia, and West Virginia, respectively. The Workman family was established in Virginia at a very early day, its members having taken part in the development of the country through its various phases. John L. Workman was a farmer, and when the war broke out between the North and the South, he entered the Union Army and served uutil peace was de- clared. After his honorable discharge he settled in Boone County, West Virginia, and resumed his farming. He was an ardent republican, and zealous in behalf of the Methodist Episcopal Church, of which he was long a member.

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History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 3, Part 164

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