History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 3, Part 165

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Reared in Boone County, Siegel Workman attended its public schools, and, entering Marshall College, took a gen- eral course for one term, and then the commercial course. Returning to Boone County, he went into the timber and lumber business with Wm. Osborn as his partner, and this connection was maintained from 1902 to 1908, when it was dissolved, and Mr. Workmau became assistant cashier of the Madison National Bank, and held this position until April 1, 1922, when he was appointed to his present important office, to succeed his old partner, Mr. Osborn. Mr. Workman was a member of the Republicau State Central Committee, serving from 1912 until 1920, and chairman of the Repub- lican Central Committee of Boone County. Mrs. Workman is a member of the Associate State Central Committee of Women, and was the only woman in Charleston in the fall of 1920 who was willing to go into Logan County and work for the success of the republican ticket.

In 1917 Mr. Workman married Miss Eva Echols, a daugh- ter of Louis F. and Viola (Long) Echols, of Madison. Mr. Echols is county assessor of Boone County, and one of the leading farmers of this part of the state. For many years he was a dominating figure in the lumber business in his part of the state, and is a man of great influence in the republican party. Mr. and Mrs. Workman have one son, Siegel, Junior, born August 6, 1918. Mr. Workman is a thirty-second degree Scottish-rite Mason, and belongs to the Mystic Shrine. The local lodge of the Benevolent and Pro- tective Order of Elks also holds his membership. In every- thing he has undertaken he has displayed commendable energy and unquestioned ability, and is one of the rising young men of Boone County, whose name is going to be associated with much higher honors than those already be- stowed upon him. Boone is his home county, and he is very proud of it, and anxious to insure its welfare in every par- ticular. Both he and his wife are ardent in their interest in politics, and she is one of the members of her sex who is justifying in marked degree the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment. They are deservedly popular with all classes, and have friends of moment all over the state.

SALATHIEL LEE O'NEAL. School teacher, farmer and horticulturist, lumberman, civil and mining engineer, in- ventor -- only the exceptional man deserves recognition for

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definite accomplishments in such a broad range of activities. Nevertheless these occupations, carried on jointly or suc- cessively, have been the medium through which Mr. O'Neal of Philippi has expressed his talents in service to himself and the world.

An English genealogist writes: "The O'Neill family and name, according to all standard antiquaries, descended from King Heremon (seventh son of Milessus, the first of the Milesian race who conquered and settled Ireland). Niall The Great (his direct lineal descendant), Monarch of Ireland A. D. 388, subdued the Piets and ancient Kings of his name (O'Neill).

" 'The O'Neill' has always stood for a fighting and representative titled line, the last of whom, George Owen O'Neill, 'The O'Neill', County of Tyrone, was formerly a Peer of Portugal and an officer of the Royal household of the late King of Portugal."

For the most part the O'Neals have been rural and agricultural people, and Mr. O'Neal himself has never for any great length of time been entirely divorced from agricultural enterprise. The founder of the family in America was his great-grandfather, a native of Ireland, who went from that country to England, where he married a Miss Anglin, and shortly afterward they came to America and established their home about two miles west of Philippi, on what is now the Clarksburg Pike. In this country locality, then little improved above pioneer conditions, they spent the rest of their days. Among their children were three sons, John, David and Joseph. John, was the grand- father, and his career is noted in the following paragraph:

Joseph was a farmer living near his brother John, on part of his father's land. He had three children, Daniel, Ellen and Edith. Edith became the wife of William Shaw, and their son, David Shaw, became a distinguished educator, advocating in advance of his prime denominational schools, and was at the head of the State Reform School and later president of the Norris-Harvey College at Barboursville. He served in the Legislature of the state for five terms, was a democrat and a member of the Southern Methodist Church. Joseph O'Neal, the youngest of the three brothers men- tioned, lived about a mile and a half west of Philippi, on the Clarksburg Pike, where he was a farmer, but is per- haps best remembered in the locality for his skill with the violin, and was one of the old-time fiddlers of that section of the state.

John O'Neal became a farmer on Elk Creek. He was one of the very successful men of his time, and left a large amount of real property when he died. He was a demo- crat, but could not be persuaded to take office, and was a member of the Methodist Church. Like his father, he mar- ried a Miss Anglin, and they were the parents of ten children. The record of the children is as follows: Samuel. mentioned below; Thomas, a farmer who before the Civil war went to Kansas and established himself at old Grass- hopper Falls near Kansas City, where he lived out his life; George went to Kansas with his brother Thomas, and was also a farmer there; Joel, who followed farming in Bar- bour County; Lemuel, who was a farmer and successful in accumulating property in Barbour County, where he died; David, who spent his life in the rural community of his ancestors; Abigail, who married George Alexander, of Buckhannon, where she died; Prudence, who married John Zinn, and they spent their lives just south of Philippi; Rebecca, who married Absolom Roberts, a farmer in Bar- bour and Ritchie counties; Mary, who is now ninety-four years of age, the wife of Abram Wells and living near Tannersville, West Virginia. None of the sons entered the military struggle between the states, though all were op- posed to slavery. All but one of them were democrats and all were Methodists.

Samuel O'Neal, representing the third generation of the family in West Virginia, grew up in a home where school advantages were primitive. He became good in reading, writing and arithmetic, had a good voice, and was very popular in the singing schools of his day. The busi- ness of his life was farming. He was a very active member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, serving as class reader, and was a member of the Patrons of

Husbandry. Samuel O'Neal married Mary Crites. Het father, it is believed, was killed while away from hom ffo the purpose of paying for some land that he had Jur chased. He was robbed of his money and buried not bor than twenty miles from his home without the family In; advised. Samuel O'Neal died January 3, 1899, anchi wife died on the 28th of the same month. Of their in children they reared seven: Joab, a farmer and carpite contractor at Buckhannon, where he died; John, who we farmer, died at Lebanon, Missonri, March 24, 12 Rahame, who married Elam Anglin and lives in Barpu County ; Martha, wife of David Hall, a farmer and sc man in Barbour County; Prudence, who lives in Talos County, widow of A. B. Green, who is a farmer of hat county ; Ollie, a resident of St. Louis, Missouri, the wbw of Calvin Corder, who represented another pioneer fally of Barbour County, and was a carpenter and contrato in St. Louis, where he died; and Salathiel Lee.

Salathiel Lee O'Neal was born three miles sontlos Philippi, May 24, 1864. He grew up in the place ofhis birth, and he had better educational opportunities were presented to his father. He attended country sch Is school at Philippi, and Hillsdale College in Michigan. six years he taught in country districts of Barbour Couly is He then began the manufacture and sale of lumber, but tinned farming in connection with the operation of mill. While in School Mr. O'Neal studied surveying, has done a great deal of work in civil engineering. He as elected county engineer of Barbour County in 1896, andby reelection served another term of four years. For two. years he has carried on an extensive practice as a const ing and mining engineer, being engaged by various comp- rations to make geological sketches and reports on pop- erties in West Virginia and other states. He was gendi superintendent and consulting engineer of several coal en panies, and was superintendent of the Berryburg Mine Ise years and receiver for the Philippi Collierics Company.

Probably his reputation would be secure from his work an inventor alone. He invented the caterpillar tread, will he originally called "a ship propeller. " This idea car to him thirty-eight years ago, and the same idea is tot now exhibited in the caterpillar tread used ou all war tats and tractors. And a wireless, Electrical Steering deve by which, torpedoes and ships can be steered or guion by a person a long distance from the same. Other pr! ucts of his genius are a telemeter or range finder computing distances between objects; a civil engineer transit ; and O'Neal's platting, drafting and self-ec puting device. This last invention was patented Mam 6, 1895, and provides a rapid and accurate method platting land surveys and drawings of any kind. '1 self-computing feature computes the area of a . traet land at the same time the map or plat is being ma enabling the user to do his work quickly and in one-ter the time required by the old method. He copyrightl O'Neal's Handbook on Surveying and Architecture, I cember 4, 1895. Mr. O'Neal invented a rapid-firing g just before the World war, and it passed such favoral inspection as to attract the attention of the English, al he was offered a large sum of money for the invention, h declined out of conscientious scruples against being insti mental in any improved device that would make the ( struction of human life more easy.

From the general practice of farming Mr. O'Neal for number of years has been putting his thought, energy all experiment into horticulture. In 1911 he started an orchal and now has fifty acres planted. The orchard lies so th all exposures are found. The business has been profitab. though up to the present time peaches have constituted b chief profitable crop, since other fruit is just coming in bearing. He carries on his experiments constantly, al the fruit of his experience may possibly be more valuable the horticulture of West Virginia than the actual outpi of his efforts. On his place is a tree with a remarkab history. . When this tree was 112 years old Mr. O'Neal pe formed some "tree surgery" by filling a cavity in tl trunk with thirty-two bushels of crushed stone, twenty-tw bushels of sand and eleven bushels of cement. It is b

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eved this is the largest filling ever given a fruit tree in le United States or world. The tree has been known to ear 100 bushels of apples in one season, and the year it was 20 years old it bore eighty-five bushels of measured apples. [r. O'Neal named it the "Century Mammoth Sweet."' He . identified with the state's effort to improve horticulture ud fruit growing, and for two years was president of the arm Bureau of Barbour County.

In Barbour County, July 24, 1901, Mr. O'Neal married ucy Knapp, who was born at Philippi, February 5, 1883, as educated in schools of her native city and for two years as a teacher in a country district. Her parents were John . and Sallie A. (Smith) Knapp. Her father, a native of arbour County, spent the greater part of his life as a irmer. He was a son of Henry Knapp, who came to the nited States from Germany and lived on a farm a few iles from Philippi, where he carried on his trade as chair- aker. John B. Knapp died in November, 1920, at the age f eighty-seven, and is survived by his widow. Of their en children seven grew to mature years: Jacob H .; Nancy, ife of John Weaver; Miss Lettie; John Letcher; Charles " .; Mrs. O'Neal; and Hugh Smith Knapp.

Mr. O'Neal and wife have some children who have already 1own the quality of their inheritance and training. Their Idest child is Harry Lee, who spent two years in the nited States Navy, first as a fireman and then as phar- acist's mate in the Hospital Corps, was on duty on the acific Coast and received his honorable discharge De- ember 29, 1921. The second child, Camden Cleon, is a raduate of the Philippi High School, and attended the aval Training School at Hampton Roads, now a student in roaddus College. The third child, Frederick Earl, is a ;udent in Philippi High School. John Samuel, died in fancy. The two youngest children are Aubrey Wayne and ames Morris.

Mr. O'Neal in politics is a democrat. While he was ounty engineer he made a district map of Barbour ounty which has been accepted as authority. The O'Neals re church people, Mr. O'Neal was brought up a Meth- dist, but any of the orthodox churches satisfy him. le has been a member of the Independent Order of Odd ellows for a third of a century, and his wife's father was member of that order for almost fifty years.

FRED E. SUMMERS. One of the newest and most distinc- ve of the department stores of Charleston is the F. E. ummers, a business that in two years' time has put itself mong the most successful in the state.

This business was incorporated in July, 1920, with a cap- al of $100,000. It is a new business throughout. It now presents an investment of about $100,000, and the store ccupies a four-story building and basement 120x36 feet, nd since the first of the year the volume of sales have oubled. There are about twenty-five employes. Mr. Sum- iers promoted the business, coming to Charleston after a ng experience as a merchant in the coal district. He is resident and general manager, while his active associate W. F. Hall, who is office manager, treasurer and vice resident of the company.

Mr. Summers was born at Lockwood in Nicholas County, December 29, 1885, and after a common school education e began at the age of fourteen to operate a railroad com- issary in a railroad construction plant. He has been in merchandising all his life. He was with the Loup Creek olliery Company at Page, four years, with the McCall Coal nd Coke Company at Kilsyth, four years, with the Pem- erton Coal & Coke Company at Affinity, as manager and uyer for two stores, four years, and then with the New liver and Pocahontas Coal Company as manager of two tores which did an annual business of over $600,000. This as the experience he brought with him to Charleston in 920. Personal attention to details, carefully selected stock old on a small margin of profit, and a complete organiza- ion for courtesy and good service have made it one of the most popular stores in the capitol.

Mr. Summers married Miss Emma Sampson, of Russell- ille, West Virginia, and they have two sons. Mr. Sum- iers is a Knight Templar, Mason and a Noble of the

Mystic Shrine, and is a member of the Central Methodist Episcopal Church, South.

LEE L. BENNETT. In the thriving little industrial city of Belington, Barbour County, a substantial concern that is contributing distinctly to the commercial prestige of the city is that of the Belington Handle Manufacturing Com- pany, of which Mr. Bennett is the president. His birth occurred in Valley District, this county, March 28, 1879. Ile is a scion of one of the old and well known families of Bar- bour County, his father, Worth Bennett, was born near Mount Hebron Church, and his remains rest in the little churchyard there. He was a farmer and stone-mason, and was but thirty-seven years of age at the time of his deatlı. He married Jemima C. Zirkle, and of the children of this union four are living: Malinda May, wife of Lee Kesling, of Upshur County; Lee L., of this review; Worth Gordon, of Hall, Barbour County; and Jacob Ezra, of Richwood, Nicholas County. The mother became the wife of Jacob Campbell, and their one child is Ruth V., wife of Walter Fallen, of Bingamon, Marion County. After the death of her second husband Mrs. Campbell became the wife of Cassius Skidmore, and they reside on a farmi near Hall, Barbour County.

Levi Bennett, grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was a native of one of the more eastern counties of Vir- ginia and he became one of the pioneer farmers of Barbour County, where he died at an advanced age, his remains being interred in the cemetery of Mount Hebron Chureh. The maiden name of his wife was Malinda Campbell, and they reared a fine family of twelve children: James, Baxter, Worth, Aaron, Preston, Charles, Henson, Mrs. Hannalı Layman, Mrs. Minerva Stevens, Mrs. Jane Martina, Miss Louvisa and Mrs. Estella Burner.

When Lee L. Bennett was a lad of twelve years the fam- ily removed to a farm near Buckhannon, Upshur County, where he grew to manhood, his educational advantages hav- ing been those of the local schools. He was twelve years old when his father died, and he then began to aid in the care and support of his young widowed mother by obtaining work in a planing mill, his compensation at the start hav- ing been 50 cents a day. He gained practical experience in this connection and that which followed while he was em- ployed in a chair factory at Buckhannon. After the factory was destroyed by fire he entered the employ of owners of the Loudin Planing Mill, and in this connection he virtually served a regular apprenticeship. Later he was employed as planer feeder in a mill at Heaters, Braxton County, where he remained two years. He then became a planer feeder in the mill of A. G. Giffin at Buckhannon, and in this con- nection he made the interior spouting for the present flour mill at Weston. While thus engaged at Buckhannon Mr. Bennett married and established his first independent home. Later he passed two years as foreman for the Pardee & Curtin Lumber Company at Sutton, Braxton County, and thereafter he took charge of the Pettit Mill at Heaters, in which village his first child was born. After a year at Heaters he engaged in independent business at Buckhannon, where he became associated with J. L. Henry and Ora E. Travis in the purchase of a well established planing mill. A year later Mr. Bennett sold his interest in this enter- prise and removed to Belington, Barbour County, where he organized the Belington Planing Mill Company, the stock of the corporation having been held almost entirely by him- self and E. T. Pritchard. Mr. Bennett became president of the company and general manager of the plant, while Mr. Pritchard, a skilled carpenter, assumed supervision of the building contract work assumed by the company. After three years Mr. Bennett sold his interest and engaged in the saw-mill industry, with mills in several localities in Barbour and Randolph counties, where he manufactured hardwood lumber for local use and also for shipment to accessible market points. In February, 1909, Mr. Bennett organized the Belington Handle Manufacturing Company, which was incorporated with a capital stock of $10 000, and his asso- ciates in which were E. A. Barte, E. S. Dawson, A. Lazarus and W. S. Shurtleff. He has since acquired the interests of all of these original stockholders except Mr. Dawson,

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who is vice president of the company, Mannah E. Stalnaker being now secretary of the corporation. The enterprise was established for the purpose primarily of manufacturing handles for coal and clay picks, but the business has since been expanded to include the production of a comprehensive line of tool handles, besides which the planing mill operated by the company is an important part of the enterprise, material being obtained from sawmill plants in the sur- rounding districts. The company has developed an appre- ciable export trade, and it is interesting to record that some of the handles manufactured at this plant were utilized by the English Government in the trench activities at the front in the late World war. The company has recently acquired the Serimegeour Brothers' franchise for light and power at Belington, and is now supplying the city with these utilities, a gas engine and dynamo having been installed at the plant, which is one of ninety-horse power.

Mr. Bennett and Mr. Dawson are associated also in the operation of a profitable ginseng garden on Laurel Moun- tain, the product being shipped to New York City. Mr. Bennett is identified also with farm enterprise and with the supplying of limestone for road-building. He has sup- plied crushed stone for the wearing course of about thirteen miles of hard-surface road in Barbour and Randolph coun- ties. He has served three terms as mayor of Belington. He is a republican in politics, and is affiliated with the Knights of Pythias and the Modern Woodmen of America.

July 8, 1897, recorded the marriage of Mr. Bennett and Quetty Kesling, a daughter of Gideon and Matilda (West- fall) Kesling, of Upshur County. Mrs. Bennett passed to eternal rest in October, 1901, and is survived by one daugh- ter, Geneva, who is the wife of Dorman C. Booth aud whose three children are Leon, Gertrude and Thelma. In October, 1903, Mr. Bennett wedded Miss Gertrude Hoff, who was born and reared in Barbour County and who is a daughter of Orlando P. and Martha (Hall) Hoff. Mr. and Mrs. Bennett have three children: Paul, Oletha and Stewart. The family home is an attactive and most modern bungalow that was erected by Mr. Bennett, who has erected other buildings at Belington, including that of the Graham busi- ness house and also the Holbert & Bennett garage.

WILLIAM B. CUTRIGHT is not only one of the able and representative members of the bar of Upshur County, where he is established in the practice of his profession at Buck- hannon, the judicial center of the county, but he is also a scion of one of the old, honored and influential families of this section of the state. Mr. Cutright was born on his father's farm in this county, May 3, 1869, and is a son of Granville S. and Elizabeth H. (Ilinkle) Cutright; a grandson of Elmore and Sarah (Wolfe) Cntright; a great- grandson of Jacob and Elizabeth (Westfall) Cutright, the former of whom was a son of John and Rebecca (Truby) Cutright. John Cutright came to what is now Upshur County, West Virginia, in 1769, and the family name has been prominently and worthily identified with civic and material development and progress in this county during the long intervening period. Mrs. Elizabeth H. Cutright, mother of him whose name introduces this review, was a daughter of Abraham and Mary Ann (Anderson) Hinkle, the former a son of Jonas and Mary (Cooper) Hinkle and a grandson of Leonard Hinkle, who came from Germantown, Pennsylvania, to what is now West Virginia and lived in turn in Hardy and Pendleton counties.

William B. Cutright so thoroughly utilized the advantages of the public schools of his native county that as a youth he proved himself eligible for pedagogic honors and became a successful and popular teacher in the public schools, bis service in which thus continued from 1884 to 1889, in which latter year be was elected county superintendent of schools of his native county. After giving an effective administra- tion for the term of his election he attended the normal and classical-preparatory school at Buckhannon, in which he completed both a commercial and a normal course, and in 1891 he received from the West Virginia Conference Semi- nary, now the West Virginia Wesleyan College, the degree of Bachelor of Pedagogy. He thereafter did post-graduate work in this institution through the remainder of the year

1891, and then entered the University of West Virgini from which he received in 1895 the degree of Bachelor Arts. For two years thereafter he was a member of t faculty of the preparatory department of the university, al he then entered Columbia University, New York City, which institution he bad received a Fellowship in ec nomics and history. He pursued his studies along the lines for one year and then entered the law school Columbian University of Washington, D. C., in which ] completed his course and received his degree of Bachel‹ of Laws. He was soon afterward admitted to the We: Virginia bar, but prior to this he was elected representativ of Upshur County in the Lower House of the West Virgini Legislature, in which he served two years, with characte istic loyalty and efficiency. Thereafter he served one yea as president of the State Normal School at West Liberty He resigned this position in June, 1899, and then engage in the practice of law at Buckhannon, where he also becam editor of the Buckhannon Delta, with which he thus col tinued his connection five years. He has been continuous! identified with stock-farming enterprise in his native county and is one of the vitally loyal citizens who are doing all i their power to further the civic and material prosperity an. advancement of Upshur County. Mr. Cutright has had th consideration to give from the exactions of his representa tive law business and his other interests the time to pre pare the history of Upshur County that appears in this pub lication, and to no other person in the county could thi assignment have been more consistently made. He is : stalwart in the ranks of the republican party, and he and his wife are zealous members of the Methodist Episcopa Church in their home city.

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History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 3, Part 165

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