History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 3, Part 167

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In opening the Pigeon Creek property Mr. Harman has what is known as the Thacker seam and the Winifred seam, both of which will ship from the one tipple. The first ship- ment from this district was made July 30, 1921. The prod- net is a high volatile coal, and the property will produce 3,000 tons daily. In the operation of the Puritan Mine Mr. Harman is on the ground daily, mingling with his men and looking after their interests in a way seldom noted among the proprietors. He is unmarried, belongs to a number of organizations, and is extremely popular wherever known.


GEORGE W. PHILLIPS, M. D. Since completing his med- ical education Doctor Phillips has devoted his abilities and increasing skill to the service of the little community of Blacksville in Clay District of Monongalia County. He is a professional man of high standing, and also a citizen whose interest is in the welfare of the community.


Doctor Phillips in his home at Blacksville is not far from bis birthplace, which was over the state line in Greene County, Pennsylvania. He was born at Waynesburg, Sep- tember 30, 1878, son of Judge Jesse Phillips. The Phillips family moved from New Jersey to Greene County about 1820. The grandfather of Doctor Phillips was Richard Phil- lips, who spent his life as a farmer in Greene County and died in old age. Judge Jesse Phillips was born in Greene County, and was one of the effective leaders in that county for many years. He died at the age of sixty-five. His wife was Deborah Spragg, who was born on a farm in Greene County, daughter of David Spragg, for whom a village was named. David Spragg was a merchant and also post- master of Spragg. Mrs. Deborah Phillips died in Febru- ary, 1918, at the age of seventy-seven.


George W. Phillips was educated in the common schools, attended Waynesburg College, and from there entered Jef- ferson Medical College at Philadelphia, where he was grad- uated in 1904. For a year he was an interne in St. John's


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Hospital in Pittsburgh, and then located at Blacksville to take up his duties as a general practitioner. He has been the leading physician of Blacksville for the past fifteen years. Doctor Phillips is a member of the County, State and American Medical associations, for four years was a member of the Board of Education and also served as mayor of the town. He helped secure the construction of the M. & W. Railroad. Doctor Phillips owns farming lands to the aggregate of about two hundred acres, having one farm in Pennsylvania and one near Blacksville. This is underlaid with oil and gas, but these resources have not been developed. The farms are operated by tenants, and stock raising is the principal industry. Doctor Phillips has built a very pleasant home in the village of Blacks- ville. He was a member of the Volunteer Medical Corps during the war, and is a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason.


On February 17, 1906, he married Mary Kennedy, of Mount Morris, Pennsylvania. They have a daughter, Nellie, now a senior in the Blacksville High School. Mrs. Phillips was president of the local Red Cross Chapter during the war.


E. W. ROSE, M. D. The leading physician of a large see- tion of country included in the territory surrounding Wadestown, thirty miles west of Morgantown, is Doctor Rose, who located there after graduating from medical school, and has practiced over an ever increasing range of territory. He has been public spirited and has associated himself with every substantial movement for the general improvement of the community.


Doctor Rose was born in Greene County, Pennsylvania, son of a farmer, and he grew up on a farm. He acquired a common school education, and he studied medicine in Long Island Hospital Medical College at Brooklyn and spent two terms in the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Baltimore. Some two years after he began practice he did post-graduate work in the same institution. Leaving college, he came to Wadestown, and the first year had practically no exercise for his professional talents, after which his abilities became recognized and his work has assumed increasing importance with every successive year. Doctor Rose is a member of the County, State and Amer- ican Medical associations.


He is a democrat, and is recognized as the pioneer in the good roads movement in this locality. Associated with the late M. J. Garrison, Doctor Rose visited the County Court many years ago to arouse an interest in local road improvement. The court at their solicitation visited Wades- town, and out of this movement came the first paved piece of road in the western part of Monongalia County. This good road was later extended, after its patrons had realized the great advantage of substantial highways, and the edu- cational campaign for good roads was ended in the Wades- town community years before the idea secured any hearing in less progressive communities.


Doctor Rose married Kate Henderson who died two months after their marriage. His second wife was Ida Lester, who died leaving one daughter, Lucile, now Mrs. Frank Tyler, of Elizabeth, New Jersey. For his third wife Doctor Rose married Bertha Evans, and they have one daughter, Elizabeth.


GEORGE AUGUSTUS MAC QUEEN, M. D. West Virginia has a share in some of the finest surgical ability of the world, but it was due not only to his exceptional standing in sur- gery but to his constructive leadership in the medical and surgical profession in general, to the task which he suc- cessfully performed in founding and building up a great private hospital, and his disinterested service in the pro- fession and as a citizen that the West Virginia Medical Association so well bestowed upon Dr. George Augustus MacQueen of Charleston the honor of president at its fifty- fourth annual meeting held in Charleston in 1921.


Doctor MacQueen is a native of West Virginia, horn in Nicholas County in 1879, son of David and Mary (Mc- Cue) MacQueen. His father was a native of Nova Scotia and his grandfather of Scotland. David MacQueen as a young man moved to Nicholas County, West Virginia,


married there and reared a family of ten children, six sons and four daughters. Mary McCue was born in Nicholas County, of Scotch-Irish ancestry, her family having beer among the pioneer settlers of Nicholas County, moving to that vicinity from Rockbridge County, Virginia.


Reared on a farm, Doctor MacQueen attained a thorough academic and medical education. He attended normal school in Nicholas and Fayette counties and Marshall College in Huntington, and spent two years in the study of medicine in the Baltimore College of Medicine. After passing the examination of the State Board of Medical Examination he began practice, and continued until he could earn the money to finish his advanced course. He received his M. D. degree from Baltimore College of Medi- cine in 1906, and soon after graduating moved to Charles- ton.


Doctor MacQueen continued in the general practice of medicine for ten years, but since then his work has been almost entirely in the domain of surgery. It was primarily to accommodate and afford proper facilities for his surgical practice that he founded and built the original Kanawha Valley Hospital in Charleston, of which he is owner and chief surgeon. Since then he has personally financed the successive additions that make it now perhaps the leading private hospital in West Virginia. In 1921 a new building was constructed, providing an addition to the above named hospital. This new building is four stories high, and now the hospital has a capacity of seventy beds. Its equipment is thoroughly modern including X-ray laboratory, Biological and Pathologieal laboratories, and every facility found in the larger hospitals. Each of the laboratories is under the direction of an expert and specialist. These laboratory facilities are open to the Medical profession in general. Charleston is justly proud of the Kanawha Valley Hospital, but it is primarily and almost solely a monument to the work of Doctor MacQueen.


Doctor MacQueen is typical of many modern surgeons in their whole hearted devotion to their work and to work that lies outside the strict limits of the profession. Dur- ing the war he was chairman of the first Draft Board for Charleston. He was also the "war" mayor of the city, being elected in the spring of 1917. He was mayor eighteen months, and then resigned to go into war service in Septem- her, 1918. He was assigned with the rank of captain in the Army Medical Corps. He was assigned to Evacua- tion Hospital No. 47, at Camp Greenleaf, Georgia, and re- ceived his honorable discharge in December, 1918.


As mayor Doctor MacQueen had very difficult tasks to perform. The country was at war, the city treasury was embarrassed by lack of funds, and the ordinary resources could not be drawn upon because they were already taxed by heavy war demands. Public works and public duties within the ordinary scope of a municipal government had to depend upon extraordinary exertions on the part of Doctor MacQueen and his associates. Among other things he had to police the city with only twenty men. That force, adequate in normal times and with the population Charleston had before the war, was entirely insufficient due to the rapid influx of people attracted hy the many industries established here, particularly the great muni- tions plant at Nitro. For all these difficulties Mayor MacQueen gave the city a splendid administration, marked hy good order and efficiency.


Doctor MacQueen was chairman of the committee on Legislation and public politics of the West Virginia State Medical Association from 1907 to 1921. It was largely due to his work and influence as chairman that practically all of the present laws relating to public health were put on the statute books. It may properly be a lasting source of pride to Doctor MacQueen that he sponsored the legis- lation leading to the building of the State Tuberculosis Sanitarium at Terra Alta. It was a project for which he fought alone for a long period. He personally wrote and presented the original resolution No. 17 covering this project for the joint session of the Legislature of 1907.


Doctor MacQueen married Miss Nimmie Goad, of Brax- ton County. Mrs. MacQueen, who died in 1914, was a daughter of the late George Goad, of that county. George


George R. Mas Que


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HISTORY OF WEST VIRGINIA


Goad was sheriff of the county, a leading citizen, and mem- ber of a family that has been prominent in that section of the state from early times. Doetor MaeQueen has one daughter, Anna Mary.


Doctor MaeQueen is a member of the American Medical Association, also of the Southern Medieal Association. He is a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason, a Knight Templar and a Shriner. He is also a member of the Elks, and of both the Edgewood Country Club and the Kanawha Country Club at Charleston.


WILLIAM H. SPIKER is a leading merchant and business man at Clifton Mills in Preston County. His family is an old and honored one in that section of West Virginia, and further referenee to it is made on other pages of this publication.


William H. Spiker was born in Pleasant Distriet, No- vember 2, 1872. His father is the venerable John J. Spiker, of Brueeton Mills, a retired farmer and hotel man and a veteran of the Civil war. William H. Spiker is a brother of Calvin F. Spiker, also of Brueeton Mills.


William H. Spiker was seven years of age when his parents moved, in 1879, to Grant Distriet, where he ae- quired most of his education in Mountain Grove School, with also two terms of normal institute work. For two terms he taught in Pleasant Distriet and then for a dozen years followed the voeation of farming. When he left farming he engaged in merchandising at Bruceton Mills as sueeessor to the firm of Wolfe & Ileimbaugh, at the old Harader stand, where sinee 1909 he has conducted a thriving and prosperous business under the firm name of William H. Spiker. His is a general business enterprise, affording an effective service not only for imported supplies and goods but also as a means of marketing the surplus products of the community. He operates a trading outfit between Clifton Mills and Uniontown, Pennsylvania, and buys practically any merchantable commodity offered for sale and sends it to market over the railroads. Mr. Spiker has also done an effective part in local citizenship. He has served as a member of the Board of Education, was for six years postmaster of Clifton Mills, under the Taft and a portion of the Roosevelt administrations, and is notary public of the community, receiving his commission from Governor Cornwell.


In Preston County, April 8, 1896, he married Miss Birdie Liston, daughter of Abraham and Lyda (Wolfe) Liston, and granddaughter of Henson Liston and Jacob Wolfe. This is the old and prominent Wolfe family of Preston County. Henson Liston was a Union soldier in the Civil war, spent all his life in Preston County and is buried in the Liston graveyard near Roekville. Abraham and Lyda Liston had the following children: Mrs. Birdie Spiker, who was born in Grant District, January 10, 1876; Callie, Mrs. H. V. Rhoardes, of Haydentown, West Virginia; Lloyd, a minister of the Church of the Brethren, living near Moun- tain Grove, where for many years he has been a school teacher; Hosea, a eoal miner near Morgantown; and Charles, a earpenter at Morgantown. Hosea and Charles Liston were soldiers in the World war, Hosea in the Motor Battalion and Charles in the Infantry. Both were over- seas and at the front. Charles participated in the battles and campaigns of Belleau Wood, St. Mihiel and the Argonne. Both brothers were overseas about two years and returned to the United States in 1919.


Mrs. Spiker was educated in the country schools of Grant Distriet. They were married by Rev. C. E. Feather, of the Methodist Church, in which denomination Mr. Spiker was reared. Mr. and Mrs. Spiker have two children, Ora M. and Lena May.


AARON N. LINGER. Freneh Creek is one of the post of- fices and commercial eenters of Upshur County, and a sus- taining factor in its business life for over thirty years has been Aaron N. Linger, a leading merehant. Mr. Linger is well known in Upshur County, where he is interested in banking, farming and in eivie affairs.


He was born on Big Skin Creek in Lewis County, West Virginia, August 23, 1858, son of Nieholas and Matilda


(Bradshaw) Linger. He grew up on his father's farm there, attended the free schools, and was at home until the age of twenty-one. After his marriage he settled on a farm on Skin Creek, but six years later sold out and moved to French Creek, in 1888, and sinee then has been steadily in business as a merchant, and his store has brought a large amount of trade to that village eenter. Mr. Linger also owns a farm of seventy aeres, is a director in the Bank of Adrian, and a stockholder in the Peoples Bank of West Virginia at Buekhannon.


He married Miss Luey E. Sexton, of French Creek, and they have two children: Freeman S., a dentist at Clarks- burg; and Dr. R. B. Linger, of Lost Creek, West Virginia. Mr. and Mrs. Linger are members of the Presbyterian Church, and he is one of its trustees. In polities he is a demoerat.


GRANVILLE TETER represents a substantial farming and stock raising element in Central West Virginia, is owner of a large farm on Prindle's Fork of Stone Coal Creek, and for many years has been doing his part as an agri- eulturist and stoekman and also as a high minded eitizen.


Mr. Teter's home is twelve miles southeast of Weston and just over the line in Upshur County. He was born on Peek's Run in Upshur County, March 26, 1856, son of Alva and Catherine (Strader) Teter. His father was born in Upshur County in 1822 and died January 21, 1893. He was a prominent farmer and also active in public affairs as a democrat, representing his county in the Legislature two terms, was deputy sheriff and for one term sheriff of Upshur County. He was an active member of the Reger Methodist Episcopal Church. His children were named Sarah E., James Lee, Elizabeth, Granville, John, Florence Crosby, Barbara, Sherman T., Lloyd and Burton I.


Granville Teter spent his early life on his father's farm and had a common school education. He married soon after reaching the age of twenty-one, and has since been primarily concerned with his growing interests as a farmer. His farm contains 602 aeres, and he is one of the leading growers of cattle, for beef, in his community. He is a di- reetor of the Peoples Bank of Buckhannon and a direetor of the Upshur County Fair Association.


On April 12, 1877, Mr. Teter married Miss Berenice Brake. She was born in Upshur County, September 5, 1856, and was edneated in the common schools. The chil- dren born to Mr. and Mrs. Teter were as follows: Bertha B., born January 11, 1878 wife of W. P. Casto; Cozbi, born November 18, 1880, wife of D. P. Linger; Grace S., born in September, 1883, died in 1886; Claude W., born March 22, 1886, married Grace Reder; Maude M., born February 18, 1889, wife of Doctor Linger; Osie C., born June 15, 1896, died January 15, 1915: and Avis, horn June 30, 1902, a student in high school. Mr. Teter is a repub- lican, and has served as county commissioner of Upshur County and also as a member of the School Board.


ABRAHAM LINDON GRIGGS, president of the County Court of Lewis County, has become a figure in publie affairs in his locality not through a special inelination for polities, but on account nf his high standing as a eitizen and record as a successful farmer, the basis of confidence which has been thoroughly justified in his official perform- anee.


Mr. Griggs, whose home is on his farm eighteen miles west of Weston, was born in Harrison County, January 17, 1865, son of Hamilton and Sarah L. ( Hurst) Griggs. His father was born in Monongalia County, West Virginia, in 1835 and his mother, in IFarrison County in 1833. Both grew up on farms, were educated in the common schools, after their marriage settled in Ilarrison County and a few years later moved to a farm on Finks Creek, in 1869, where Hamilton Griggs continued his farming operations until 1890. In that year he divided his farm holdings among his children and then bought another farm in Calhoun County, to which he removed. He was never affiliated with any church, but his wife was an active member of the Baptist denomination. He belonged to the Grange, was a republican in polities, and fought for the Union two


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years in the Civil war. Of his eight children seven are living: Isabelle, deceased; Mary O. widow of A. E. Hud- kins; John H., who lives in Kansas; Euna, wife of John Moneypenny, of Kansas; Abraham L .; Howard, a Kansas farmer; Cora, wife of Dr. J. A. Dye, of Williamston, West Virginia; and Claude F., of Weston.


Abraham Lindon Griggs grew up on the farm, attended the public schools of Lewis County, and for six terms did a useful work as a teacher in the public schools. Since then he has been farming, and has made a progressive record in everything he has undertaken. lle was first appointed to the County Court to fill a vacancy, and in November, 1920, was elected and is now president of the board. He has also served as a member and president of the Board of Education of the Freemans Creek School Dis- trict. Mr. Griggs is a republican, and is elerk of the Baptist Church is his home community.


On November 28, 1888, he married Lena C. Taupel. She died in May, 1911, the mother of five children: II. Quay, a graduate of the normal and academic courses of Glen- ville, who was in the Aviation Corps during the World war and had overseas duty, and is now in the employ of the United States Government in the California oil fields; Edna is the wife of Cleveland Davisson, a farmer in Lewis County; Ada is the wife of Doy Talbott, a farmer in Gilmer County; Ethel and Mamie, the youngest children, are at home. Mr. Griggs subsequently married May H. Lovell. She has one son, Orris, who was a soldier in the World war and was overseas.


EUGENE CARL FRAME, a prominent member of the Marion County bar and a loyal and popular citizen of Fairmont, the county seat, was born at Coolville, Athens County, Ohio, September 2, 1872, and is a son of Augustus J. and llar- riet (Smith) Frame. Augustus J. Frame was born at Coolville in 1835, and his death occurred in 1908. llis father, John Frame, was a young man when he came from his native Ireland and settled in Athens County, Ohio, where he passed the remainder of his life. Augustus J. Frame became a successful merchant and influential citizen of Athens County, where he held publie office-county treas- urer and county auditor-for a total period of twenty-six years. His wife was born at Letart, Meigs County, Ohio, in 1841, and died in 1884.


Eugene C. Frame attended the public schools at Cool- ville and Athens, Ohio, and in addition to taking a course in the law department of the University of West Virginia he furthered his technical knowledge by the study of law in the office of Berkshire & Sturgiss, a leading law firm at Morgantown. He was admitted to the bar in 1895, and he gave twenty years of effective service as official court re- porter in Monongalia, Marion and Harrison counties. Dur- ing Judge Sturgiss' administration as United States dis- triet attorney Mr. Frame was his official secretary and law clerk. Since 1897 he has been engaged in active practice at Fairmont, and within this period he has been a prominent figure in much of the important litigation in the courts of this part of the state. In 1911 he became junior mem- ber of the law firm of Showalter & Frame, and this effective alliance continued until January 1, 1921, when the senior member of the firm, Judge Emmet M. Showalter assumed his seat on the bench of the Criminal Court of Marion County. Since that time Mr. Frame has continued his prae- tice in an individual way.


Mr. Frame is a past master of Fairmont Lodge No. 9, A. F. and A. M .; is a past high priest of Oriental Chapter No. 6, R. A. M .; past eminent commander of Crusade Commandery, Knights Templars; and in Sovereign Con- sistory No. 1 of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of the Masonie fraternity at Wheeling he has received the thirty-second degree. In November, 1921, he was made deputy grand master of the Masonic Grand Lodge of West Virginia.


In 1895 Mr. Frame wedded Miss Nellie Lee Haymond, daughter of Lindsey B. and Alice (Comerford) Haymond, of Fairmont. Mr. Haymond was one of the leading mem- bers of the Marion County bar and was serving as prose- cuting attorney of the county at the time of his death.


Ife was a son of the late Judge Alpheus F. Haymon who served twelve years on the bench of the Supren Court of West Virginia and who is more specifically me tioned on other pages of this work, especially in the pe sonal sketch of Judge William S. Haymond of Fairmor Mr. and Mrs. Frame have two children: Lindsey A., wl was born October 31, 1896, graduated from the Fai mont 1ligh School and the State Normal School in th «ity, and thereafter continued his studies in the Universi of Ohio. When the nation became involved in the Wor war he enlisted in the United States Navy, in which ] served as gunner's mate. Ile is now engaged in tl fruit-orchard and poultry business at Hancock, Marylan He married Miss Mary Emmet, of Columbus, Ohio. Jam C., the younger son, was born September 9, 1899, and a graduate of the Fairmont lligh School and the Sta Normal School, as well as of the University of Ohio, ar he is now associated with his brother in business at Ha eock, Maryland.


JOSEPH BOWERS has lived nearly all his life in Unic District of Monongalia County. His home, popular known as "Joe Bowers' place," is eight miles northea of Morgantown, on the Ices Ferry road. Ilis daily ma delivery is over Route No. 10 from Cheat Haven, Pen sylvania. Mr. Bowers has been a farmer and is one of th most popular citizens in his section of the county.


lle was born at Cheat Neck, January 31, 1852, son ( John and Harriet (Baker) Bowers. John Bowers was bor in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, was a carpenter by trad and it was work at his trade which attracted him in tl first instance to this section of West Virginia. He wa employed for a time as a carpenter in the old iron work on Cheat River, at the locality then known as Pridevill then a considerable industrial center, with iron furnace and other factories. His wages as a carpenter here we) a dollar a day, and he boarded himself. While boardin he met and married Harriet Baker, daughter of John M and Nancy (Norris) Baker, a substantial family of farn ers in that neighborhood. Harriet Baker was a sister ( Andrew C. Baker, father of George C. Baker, one of th prominent citizens of Monongalia County. John Bower finally acquired the old home of his wife's grandfathe and kept adding to his possessions until he had a valuab stoek farm of several hundred acres. He was the type c citizen who could be relied upon for effective service, an for years he was a justice of the peace, school trustee, an in other offices. It is interesting to note that John Bowel seventy-seven years ago built a house for William Donald son, and this house is now the home of Joseph Bower who purchased it twenty-four years ago. John Bowers wa a democrat, and was superintendent of the Sunday Schod of the Methodist Protestant Church. Eventually Prid ville became known as Laurel Iron Works. The Iron Work including a rolling mill, were continued in operation unt 1867, and the town which in its high tide of prosperit had a population of between twenty-five hundred and thre thousand, also had a distillery, planing mill and othe industries. Laurel Iron Works was situated on Cheat River seven miles northeast of Morgantown, and the communit is still spoken of by the old timers as Laurel Iron Works though the post office has gone and there is praeticall, no trade or industry centered there any longer. John Bow ers died September 21, 1897, in his seventy-eighth yea: and his landed possessions are still owned by his family His widow survived him eight years and was the same ag when she died. They reared six children: George C., wh died while a soldier in a West Virginia regiment in th Union Army; John H., Joseph and William D., all resident of Union District; Harriet E., wife of Charles R. Goodwir of Smithfield, Pennsylvania; and Andrew Coleman, owne of the old Bowers homestead.




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