History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 3, Part 172

Author:
Publication date:
Publisher:
Number of Pages:

USA > West Virginia > History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 3 > Part 172

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

Mr. Jarrett has been interested in all civic movements St. Albans, and he served eight terms as mayor and twice a member of the city council and also a city recorder. is a member of the Baptist Church, and is a past ister of the Masonic Lodge and has represented it in the and Lodge. Mr. Jarrett married Clara A. Henley, whose ther, Capt. C. W. Henley, was a Confederate officer and er a builder of railroad tunnels along the line of the esapeake & Ohio. He died at the age of seventy-four. . and Mrs. Jarrett have one daughter, Margaret J., now student in Lewisburg Seminary.

EDWARD CLARK COLCORD, SR. A resident of St. Albans ce 1889, Edward Clark Colcord, Sr., came to this state a timber 'expert, and for many years has been general perintendent of the lumber, coal and land interests of Bowman Lumber Company. At the same time he has en an enlightened and progressive leader in the affairs his community, and several times has gone to the Leg- atnre from Kanawha County.

He was born in Franklin County, Vermont, September 1851. Now past the age of three score and ten and Il active, he comes of a long lived and vigorous family, me of whom have reached the age of ninety. He is a of John and Sylvia Prudentia (Bowman) Colcord. is an old family in New England, established there fore the Revolution. John Colcord served as a member the State Legislature during the Civil war. His wife's ther, Eben E. Bowman, was a contractor in the con- 'uction of the Erie Railroad. Mrs. Sylvia Colcord died the old homestead when past ninety.

E. C. Colcord, Sr., at the age of seventeen went to the orthwest with an engineering corps, and about 1872 be- me interested in the lumber industry at Eau Claire, Wis- nsin, then and for years afterward one of the largest aters for the production of Northern White Pine lumber. also became interested in lumber manufacture at Wil- msport, Pennsylvania, and while there became associated th a group of capitalists who were interested in the rchase of timber lands in West Virginia. The Bowman imber Company began the buying of lands in this state 1886. The first mill was constructed in 1888 and produc- n began in the spring of 1889. The company were far ghted and desired to secure land not only valuable for e timber, but also for coal. Mr. Colcord made personal spections of large areas in the mountains of West Vir- nia, and purchased over 50,000 acres. In 1892 he took arge of all the Bowman manufacturing operations. In nnection with this large business he has had much to do th the commercial and civic affairs of St. Albans. He one of the original directors of the Bank of St. Albans, d is president of the St. Albans Board of Trade. He a Knight Templar Mason, a Noble of the Mystic Shrine d a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. As a republican he was elected to the House of Delegates 1900 for the session of 1901, and in 1902 was elected member of the State Senate, serving from 1903 to 1905. . 1908 he was again elected a member of the House. or many years he has been a member of the State Board Equalization. While he has thus been in the service the state government, his keenest interest is in his home wn. St. Albans is one of the choicest residence towns the state, owing largely to the high stock of citizenship at has been developed there.

In 1883 Mr. Colcord married Mary Agnes MeManigal, : Williamsport, Pennsylvania. She died in 1919. She as a very active member of the Presbyterian Church. hey were the parents of a family of seven children. The dest is Edward Clark, Jr., now manager of the Bowman umber Company at St. Albans. Francis C. and his 'other Eugene L. are the owners and operators of the olcord Coal Company in Raleigh County. Sylvia Prudentia

the wife of M. W. Stark, a lumber manufacturer, rmerly at St. Albans with the American Column and

Lumber Company and now a resident of Columbus, Ohio. Mary Agnes is a graduate of the Dickinson Seminary at Williamsport and the Colonial School at Washington, and is at home. Tritain Coffin is a mining engineer. William Allison, the youngest, is associated with his brothers in the Colcord Coal Company.

EDWARD CLARK COLCORD, JR., is a civil engineer by pro- fession, but for several years past his time and abilities have been expended with the Bowman Lumber Company of St. Albans, of which he is manager. His father, E. C. Colcord, Sr., is also prominently connected with that and allied in- dustries at St. Albans, and a separate article gives the details of his career.

E. C. Colcord, Jr., is the oldest in a family of seven children, and was born at Williamsport, Pennsylvania, January 15, 1885. He has lived in West Virginia since childhood, and he secured a liberal education in the schools of this state. In 1907 he graduated in the civil engineering course from West Virginia University, and during the next four years he carried on a general practice as a civil en- gineer. For two years he was at work on Ohio River im- provement. Since then he has been general manager of the Bowman Lumber Company at St. Albans. Mr. Colcord married Gertrude Rocke, daughter of Capt. A. A. and Julia Doddrige-Lackey Rocke, of St. Albans. They have one son, E. C. Colcord, III. Mr. Colcord is a republican, and has spent four years in the council of St. Albans and is a Master Mason.

The Bowman Lumber Company is a West Virginia Cor- poration organized and capitalized chiefly by men from Baltimore and Williamsport. It was organized about 1880, and its operations as a lumber mill have been conducted steadily at St. Albans. The first plant had a capacity of about 35,000 feet per day and an average annual output of between 8,000,000 and 9,000,000 feet. It cut great quan- tities of timber along the Coal River, and those cut-over lands are now leased for coal purposes. In former years it drew much of its lumber from Boone County and later from Raleigh. The company has about 125 men on its pay roll, fifty of them living at St. Albans, while the others are in the woods. Up to about sixteen years ago their plant manufactured only poplar lumber, but it now handles red and white oak, chestnut and maple, and it supplies large quantities of wood used for the high class product in furniture, interior work and automobiles.

The same interests who own the Bowman Lumber Com- pany also comprise the Rowland Land Company, which owns coal and timber lands in Raleigh County to an extent of 50,000 acres. These lands are leased for coal operations, and there are seven different mines that have been started during the last fifteen years, known as the Long Branch Coal Company, the Marsh Fork Coal Company, the Birch Fork Coal Company, Colcord Coal Company, Glogora Coal Company, Hazy Eagle Collieries Company and Raleigh Wyoming Coal Company.

MYRON G. CAMPBELL. Thirty years ago Myron G. Camp- bell was a wage earner in the coal mines. It was not long until he was promoted to superintendent, and from that he easily progressed into the ranks of operators. He was a pioneer in the development of the Gauley River field. His home has been in St. Albans for a number of years, and he is now owner of the principal public utility of that little city, the St. Albans Water, Light and Ice Company, of which he is president and general manager.

The service represented by this corporation was first es- tablished on a modest scale by the organization of the St. Albans Water and Light Company in 1907. This company erected a power house, constructed a reservoir and started delivering electric current and water on a small scale. The plant represented an investment of $50,000. The owners of this company were W. E. and T. H. Mohler. In 1913 Mr. Campbell bought the business, and at once undertook en- largements and improvements that would permit a great ex- pansion of the entire system. He ordered a light plant, en-

522

HISTORY OF WEST VIRGINIA

larged the power plant, installed electric generators of larger unit capacity, but even now the demand for current is such that the plant can supply only about half, the rest being purchased from the Virginia Power Company. To the reser- voir has been added a filtration plant, and the water works now have a daily capacity of 2,000,000 gallons. Mains have been extended four times the length of ten years ago. There are now about twenty-five miles of main, with thirty-three fire hydrants, and there are 750 water consumers and 400 light consumers. The ice plant has a capacity of twenty- two tons daily, and all is sold at wholesale for local con- sumption. At the present time this public utility has an investment of about $200,000, and there are ten regular employes.

Myron G. Campbell was born at St. Albans in February, 1874. His father, John Campbell, was a cooper by trade. The mother, Adaline Calvert, was born at Malden, and is now eighty years of age, living at St. Albans. Myron G. Campbell was only a boy when his father died, and with only a common school education he went to work in the coal mines at the age of seventeen. He was soon put in charge of a mining store, from that was advanced to superintendent, and at the age of twenty-eight began operating in the Gauley River field. He continued to give his personal super- vision to his mining interests until 1913. As a coal operator he employed about 150 men and shipped six hundred tons daily. His brother, J. M. Campbell, and his brother-in-law, T. H. Mohler, were associated as partners in this industry, and from their three names they comprised the title of their company, known as the Gamoca Coal Company at Gacoma on the Gauley River. Around the mines they de- veloped an industrial village containing eighty-five houses. The business was finally sold to the Midvale Colliery Com- pany. This firm did the first development of the coal east of the Gauley River.

Mr. Campbell is a director and vice president of the St. Albans Glass Company, and is a stockholder in both banks. He is a Knight Templar Mason and Shriner, and is af- filiated with the Knights of Pythias and Independent Order of Odd Fellows.

He married Miss Virgie Tasker, of Montgomery, West Virginia. They have three children, all educated in the St. Albans High School: Albert, in the garage and transfer business at St. Albans; Nell, now a Senior in Northwestern University at Evanston, Illinois; and Grace, who is in her Senior year in Lewisburg Seminary.

N. L. HARDMAN, a prosperous farmer whose home is on Skin Creek, fourteen miles southwest of Weston, is a mem- ber of one of the old and prominent families of Lewis County.

Part of his present farm contains the old Hardman home- stead, where he was born November 24, 1863. His parents were Marcellus L. and Mahala (Hyre) Hardman. Marcellus Hardman was born August 28, 1829, son of H. D. and Mary (West) Hardman. H. D. Hardman was born on Hacker's Creek in 1803, was a farmer and also a teacher, and in- structed a number of pupils in the rudiments of surveying. He was a democrat and an active member of the Methodist Protestant Church. His three children were named Mar- cellus, Matilda and Bettie. Marcellus Hardman grew up on a farm, and had a common school education, and was one of the good and faithful men of his day. He and his wife had five children: Levi, born July 16, 1855, a farmer in Upshur County; Catherine, born February 21, 1859, now deceased; N. L .; William M. and John D., both deceased.

N. L. Hardman spent his early life on the farm, and his neighbors have known him as a man of great diligence and unusual foresight and careful as a manager. A number of years ago he bought the old homestead of 350 acres, and has since increased his holdings to 600 acres.

Mr. Hardman married Julia A. Linger, who was reared in the same community as her husband. They have six chil- dren: O. L. Hardman, born August 8, 1891, who had a common school education and was trained as a soldier for the World war at Fort Riley, Kansas; O. M. Hardman, born September 3, 1892, who enlisted in the Signal Corps, spent eleven months in France with the Twenty-eighth Division,

was on front line duty three months, and received his hol orable discharge May 14, 1919; Ludah, born March 5, 189 0 who was educated in the common schools; Bryan, bot November 7, 1900; Brannon, born February 28, 1902; ama Benson B., born April 27, 1908. The family are members of the Methodist Protestant Church. Mr. Hardman

D affiliated with Vandalia Lodge No. 321, Independent Orde of Odd Fellows, and has served as lodge treasurer. He a democrat iu politics.

His wife, Julia A. Linger, is a daughter of Nichola D. and Margaret Matilda (Bradshaw) Linger. Her fath was born February 20, 1821, on Stone Coal Creek in Lewa County. The grandfather of Nicholas was a follower Marquis de Lafayette and came to America during th Revolutionary war to assist the Colonies in their strugg for independence. He remained here after the war, marrie and settled down and has a numerous posterity. children of Nicholas Linger and wife were: Nicholas Wrs deceased; William, deceased, who married Eliza Sextomto John W., who married Dora Bartlett; Leonidas A., det ceased, who married Rebecca Bartlett; Aaron N., wla married Lucy Sexton; Mary J., deceased; Charles E., d ceased, who married Mary J. Strader; Martha, wife Joseph H. Flint, now deceased; Julia A., Mrs. Hardman Edward B., who married Julia Clark; and David P., wie married Cozbi Teter.

HON. ABE L. HELMICK, state senator from the Fourteen District, belongs to one of the old families of Tucke County, and has achieved a number of important associ tions with the business and civic affairs of that section the state. He is president of the Blackwater Coal Compan is vice president of the Miners & Merchants Bank of Thoma and is a director in the Peoples Bank of Davis.

The old home of the Helmick family is in Pendletda County, where at least four generations of the name hays lived. Senator Helmick was born at Circleville in thai county, August 31, 1864. His great-grandfather and the founder of the name on this side of West Virginia wa Phillip Helmick. A son of Phillip Helmick was Miles Hefe mick, a native of Pendleton County. Abe B. Helmich father of the senator, was born in Pendleton County in 1844 and married Catherine Mullennax. Her father, Salathin Mullennax, was a native of Pendleton County and lived then all his life. Abe B. Helmick and three of his brothers wen in the Confederate army during the first half of the wa and if they were not Union men in sympathy at the ba ginning they finally became convinced of the righteousned of the Federal cause and all of them one way or another found their way within the Union lines and fought as so diers in that cause. Abe Helmick while on a furlough wa taken prisoner by his Confederate comrades, and was kep in Libby Prison for some time without a hearing befor being released. Mrs. Abe B. Helmick died in 1877, mothe of the following children: Albert C., of Pinto, Maryland Georganna, wife of John J. Knotts of St. George District Tucker County; and Abe L.

When Abe L. Helmick was seven years of age his pa. ents moved into Tucker County, settling at Sugarland, nea St. George, and in that community he grew to manhood having such educational opportunities as were afforded bu the local schools and the summer normals. Senator Helmic had a brief teaching experience in his home district. H assisted his father in farming and the stock business unt his majority, and after leaving home he began work for th builders of the Western Maryland Railroad on a portion c the land between Thomas and Davis in Tucker County. Fc six weeks he did common labor and was then made a ford man. After the road construction was ended he clerket in a store at Thomas for two years, and in 1888 was ap pointed postmaster of that village, which then containe between 400 and 500 people. He was postmaster for si ycars, and in the meantime engaged in general merchandis ing and sold goods at Thomas for eighteen years, finall retiring when elected sheriff of the county.

While a merchant at Thomas he was a member of th County Court for six years, and for five years was presiden of the court. A large number of county road bridges wer

523

HISTORY OF WEST VIRGINIA

It during his administration, and his name is on record one of the commissioners at the time the courthouse was cted. In 1908 he was elected sheriff, as successor of eriff Jack Jenkius, and served that post of duty four irs, when he was succeeded by John F. Repair.

During his time of sheriff Mr. Helmick had become inter- ed in business at Parsons, and on retiring from office he ight the Cheat Valley Insurance Agency at the county t, and until recently was active in that liue. He became poal developer and operator in 1916 as an organizer of Blackwater Coal Company. He also helped organize the nawha Colliery Company. He was one of the organizers the Miners and Merchants Bank of Thomas, the strongest ancial institution of the county, and which has a record substantial success and prosperity for nearly twenty irs.

Mr. Helmick was elected mayor of Thomas, and was en- rsed by both parties for re-election, but declined that hor. While mayor he brought about the improvement the city water plant and some of the streets. Mr. Hel- ck is a stanch republican, having cast his first vote for njamin Harrison in 1888. He was republican committee- n of Tucker County for many years, and has also served republican state committeeman. He was elected to the it Senate, in November, 1920, as successor of Senator bun of Preston County. At the organization of the late he was made a member of the finance committee, k and corporations, railroads, military, federal relations, es and mining, medicine and sanitation, public library 1 the redistricting committees, being chairman of the itary committee. In the Senate he was father of the vement which resulted in the employment of stenog- hers by the circuit courts of the state. He introduced original bill for the hiring of stenographers by the dis- et judges, thus saving to the state a great expense that 3 so frequently brought about by witnesses before grand ies, without the service of a public stenographer, denying ir testimony. He also introduced a bill for the censor- p of the moving pictures of the state, a measure that was eated through the organized opposition of the movie erests. He also introduced a bill to make a felony the of a father deserting without just cause his wife or lily and leaving them without proper support. Another introduced by him was to abolish the State Hotel In- ctor, a meritorious measure in view of the farcical char- er of hotel inspection under the old law. At the opening the session of the Senate, Senator Helmick was chairman the joint committee to wait upon the house and the ernor to notify each that the Senate was organized and dy for business.

t Thomas, in 1891, Senator Helmick married Miss Kate nn, daughter of Patrick Flinn. She died leaving two dren, Marie, wife of Alexander Parks, of Thomas; and , who served with the Canadian army in the World war. 1905 Senator Helmick married Fannie Liller, daughter Oliver Liller, of Ridgeville, West Virginia, where Mrs. mick was born. She was educated in the Fairmont State 'mal School, and was a prominent teacher in Mineral nty for ten years. She was appointed postmistress to ceed Mr. Helmick's first wife, and held the office of post- tress of Thomas for two terms. During the war she was ively engaged in work as a member of the executive mittee of the Red Cross in Tucker County, and Mr. mick was chairman of the membership drive for the nty.

AVID EARL CUPPETT. A resident of Thomas, and one of leading members of the Tucker County bar, David Earl pett has in the course of a quarter of a century done e good work as a teacher, but for nearly twenty years time has been fully taken up with a law practice that afforded opportunity for the exercise of his striking ities as a criminal lawyer.

the founder of the family in West Virginia was John pett, Sr., who lived in Pennsylvania during the Revolu- ary war and was one of the few men who escaped the oming Valley massacre. When he moved out of Bedford nty he settled at Glade Farms in Preston County, Vir-

ginia, and spent the rest of his life there as a farmer. His son, Daniel Cuppett, was born in Bedford County, was a child when brought to West Virginia, and his life work also was identified with the farm. He married Mary Scott, and their nine children were: William; Alpheus; Daniel; Henry; David; Isaac; Lucy, who married Josiah Smith; Miss Jane; and Mrs. Nancy Edwards. Of these brothers, Henry was a Union soldier and captured a Confederate flag when Fort Donelson was taken; while Isaac was in the service as a member of General Custer's command and died in Andersonville Prison.

Alpheus Cuppett, father of David E. Cuppett, was born in Preston County, had a country school education, and his active years were spent as a farmer and stock dealer. He was interested in the success of the republican party, and was a prominent leader in the Methodist Church at Glade Farms, being influential in building the church there. He died June 15, 1900, at the age of seventy-four. Alpheus Cuppett married Elizabeth Harned, daughter of Edward and Sarah (Johnson) Harned. She died March 12, 1908. Their children were: Milford H., of Uniontown, Pennsyl- vania; Clark A., who died in Southern California; Ross, deceased; Edward E., of Terra Alta; Mary, wife of Rufus Augustine, of Confluence, Pennsylvania; Ella, who died at Addison, Pennsylvania, wife of C. H. Bird; Charles H., a school man of Bellvernon, Pennsylvania; Sylvia, who died unmarried; and David Earl.

David Earl Cuppett was born in the Glade Farms locality of Preston County, February 13, 1878. He lived there through his boyhood and youth, shared in the labor of the farm, attended the country schools, and several summer normal courses prepared him for teaching. He took his first school at the age of sixteen, being in charge of the North Avenue School. For six terms he continued teaching in the country, two terms being spent in Fayette County, Pennsyl- vania. He left teaching to enroll as a student in the literary department of West Virginia University, in which he did three years of work and then finished with the law course, graduating LL. B. in 1904. Immediately after qualifying as a lawyer he located at Thomas in Tucker County, and tried his first law suit in the courts of this county. He has practiced alone, and while he has appeared in some notable litigations in both the civil and criminal branches his reputation has become fixed as a defense lawyer in criminal practice. Up to the spring terms of 1922 he had figured in twenty-nine murder cases, and several of the cases in which he has appeared have gone before the Court of Appeals, where he has won victories as well as in the lower courts. Mr. Cuppett is a former president of the Tucker County Bar Association and a member of the West Virginia Bar Association.

His public service includes two terms as city recorder at Thomas and fifteen years as city attorney, during which time he handled the legal matters connected with bond issues for street improvement and water supply. For twelve years he was secretary of the Board of Education of Fair- fax District, and in 1909 was elected member in the House of Delegates from Tucker County, serving under speaker James H. Strickling, and was a member of several com- mittees. He was connected with the passage of the State Board of Control Bill at that term. In 1919 he was again elected to the Legislature, and Speaker L. J. Wolfe ap- pointed him chairman of the committee on elections and privileges and a member of the judiciary, education, Vir- ginia debt, mines and miniug, private corporations and joint stock companies committees. In that session he was much interested in securing the passage of the Amended Work- men's Compensation Law, in the passage of the New School Code, the Child Labor Law and the amendment of the Juvenile Court Law, all of which measures originated in the judiciary committee. He also voted for the ratification of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Amendments to the Fed- eral Constitution and was author of the Women's Registra- tion Law, which enlarged the field for political action for women, carrying into effect the real purpose of the Nine- teenth Amendment. Mr. Cuppett has participated in a number of campaigns as a speaker in behalf of the repub- lican candidates, is a member of the Tucker County Execu-

524

HISTORY OF WEST VIRGINIA

tive Committee, and has attended several congressional and state conventions. Fraternally he is a member of the Sigma Nu college fraternity, the Knights of Pythias, and is presi- dent of the board of trustees of the Methodist Episcopal Church. During the World war he was one of the Four- Minute speakers and chairman of that body in Tucker County, and was also a member of the County Council of Defense.

In a business way Mr. Cuppett is a director and attorney for the Miners and Merchants Bank of Thomas and the First National Bank of Bayard, and is local attorney for the Davis Coal and Coke Company, the largest industry at Thomas. He is a stockholder and director in the Black- water Coal Company.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 3, Part 172

Author: Publication date: Publisher: Number of Pages:

Author:
Publication date:
Publisher:
Number of Pages: