History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 3, Part 175

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Judge Valentine is a republican without being a striet partisan, and increasing years and experience has made him less and less interested in partisan politics. He east his first vote for Benjamin Harrison. In 1920 he was urged to make the race for judge of the Twenty-first Judicial Circuit. There were three competitors for the republican nomination, one of them being the presiding judge and the other two able lawyers. The judicial convention at Keyser which deeided the matter held a session all night until 11 o'clock the following morning, before the conflicting partisans of the different candidates were harmonized in the nomination of Mr. Valentine, who was nominated on the 207th ballot. In the following eleetion he led his tieket by several hun- dred votes and had a majority of 4,697 over his democratie opponent. Judge Valentine held his first term of court in Keyser in January, 1921, succeeding Judge Franeis M. Rey- nolds on the bench.

At St. George, West Virginia, December 2, 1891, Judge Valentine married Lummie Kalar, a native of Tucker County, where her parents settled from old Virginia. Her father was Samuel D. Kalar, who married a Miss Mary Lee Gray. He was a farmer and died soon after the close of the Civil war, while Mrs. Valentine's mother lived until 1921, passing away at the age of eighty-four. In the Kalar family were the following children: Solomon W., of Par- sons; Elam B., of Santa Cruz, California; Mrs. Valentine, who was born May 23, 1868, and was educated in the public sehools; Mrs. Hoy Ferguson, of Randolph County; Mrs. Lloyd Collett, of Wheeling; Spencer Kalar, of Porterwood, West Virginia; and Lloyd Kalar of Parsons.

Judge and Mrs. Valentine had six children, two of whom died in infancy, and have one grandchild. Their daughter Zillah is the wife of Rev. A. B. Withers, of Louisville, Ken- tneky, and has a daughter Zillah Evelyn. Arthur, Jr., who was in the student army training eorps during the World war, is now an automobile salesman at Parsons. Mark T. graduated in 1922 from the law school of West Virginia University. Paul, the youngest, is attending grammar school at Parsons.

Judge Valentine is a member of the Masonie Lodge and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. During the war he was a member of the Legal Advisory Board of Tucker County.

CHARLES E. KREBS, of Charleston, is a mining engineer and geologist of thirty years' experience and an acknowl- edged authority among the engineers and economic geol- ogists in the coal distriets of West Virginia. He is also

an authority on oil and gas deposits in West Virginia and a member of the Western states.

Mr. Krebs was born at New Martinsville, Wetzel County, West Virginia, May 19, 1870, a son of John W. and Eliz- abeth (Hubacher) Krebs. His grandfather, Nicholas Krebs, was a native of Alsace-Lorraine, served as a soldier under the great Napoleon at the battle of Waterloo, and a year after that battle came with his family to America and settled in Ohio, where he lived until his death, in 1855, at the age of seventy years. John W. Krebs was born in Ohio, and spent his active life as a farmer and carpenter in Wetzel County, West Virginia, where he died in 1908, at the age of seventy-seven years.

Up to the age of sixteen Mr. Krebs lived on a farm, attended common schools, and from sixteen to nineteen he taught in rural schools. He then entered West Virginia University, where he pursued a scientific and engineering course, and graduated with the degree Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering in 1894.

The work he has done since graduation comprises a notable volume of professional interests. Up to 1897 he was engineer on location and construction of the Charles- ton-Clendenin & Sutton Railroad from Charleston to Elkins. During 1898-1900 he was a mining engineer in the New River coal field. In 1900 he became a member of the firm Clark & Krebs, and for eight years did prospecting and development work on coal properties, railroad con- struetion, the building of coke ovens and the study of the different coal measures in West Virginia and Kentucky. In 1908 Mr. Krebs was appointed assistant geologist of the West Virginia Geological Survey, and worked aa as- sistant to the distinguished Dr. I. C. White, West Virginia 's grand old man of science. For six years he gathered data, made investigations of the resources of West Vir- ginia, and submitted these data for publication to Doctor White. The detailed reports published by the survey, based on the data supplied by Mr. Krebs, are as follows: Detailed report of Jackson, Mason and Putnam counties, 1911; Cabell, Wayne and Lincoln counties, 1913; Kanawha County, 1914; Boone County, 1915; Raleigh, Summers and Mereer counties, 1916.

Sinee 1915 Mr. Krebs has been engaged in general geological work and mining engineering in West Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky and several Western states. He has made a specialty of reports and valuation of coal, oil and gas properties. In 1919 he published the Fuel Ratio of Coal, showing the qualities of the West Virginia coals as com- pared with those of Ohio. During the years 1921-22 he assisted the state tax commissioner of West Virginia in making a small valuation of the coal lands in West Virginia for state taxation purposes.

Mr. Krebs is a member of the American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers, and has been seere- tary of the Charleston section of that association. He is also a member of the West Virginia Coal Mining Institute. Before a convention of coal and mining engineers at Huntington in September, 1921, he read a carefully pre- pared article on coal deposits and production of Southern West Virginia. He is a member of the Presbyterian Church, is a Knight Templar and Thirty-second degree Seottish Rite Mason and Shriner, and is a charter member of the Rotary Club.

In 1899 Mr. Krebs married Miss Donnie Carr, of Clay County, West Virginia. She died two years later. In 1905 he married Josephine Stephens, of Paden City, West Virginia. They have one son, Charles Gregory, born Deeem- ber 10, 1907, and is now attending high school.

FRANK P. REASE, who is familiarly known by his title of captain, which be gained in his youth as a captain of a river boat, bas heen a prominent figure in connection with civic and industrial development and progress in West Virginia, where he is one of the representative and influential citizens of Belington, Barbour County.

Captain Rease was born near Corning, Steuben County, New York, October 6, 1862, and is a son of Peter and Lucy N. (Watrous) Rease, the former of whom was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and the latter in Susquehanna

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County, that state. Peter Rease was born in the year 1808, and he became a successful merchant at Corning, New York, where also he conducted a hotel and was engaged in the manufacturing of lime, his death having there occurred in June, 1873, and his widow, who was born February 12, 1814, having died in 1888. Both were earnest communicants of the Protestant Episcopal Church and he was a democrat in politics. Of their children the eldest, Morris, who served as captain of engineers in the Union army in the Civil war, eventually became chief engineer of the Union Pacific Rail- road, and he retained this position until his death at St. Louis, Missouri. Louise married B. N. Wentz, and after his death hecame the wife of A. J. Owen, her death having oc- curred at Wyalusing, Pennsylvania. Henry, a Union soldier in the Civil war, took part in the historic Red River cam- paign under General Banks, and died while in service and is buried at New Orleans. Helen is the wife of William H. Herrick, of Hollywood, California. Frank P., of this review, is the youngest of the number.

Capt. Frank Pierce Rease gained his early education in the public schools of Corning, New York, where he com- pleted the curriculum of the high school. In connection with his father's business activities he early became iden- tified with the operation of canal boats, and he served as captain of boats plying between Corning, New York, and Newark, New Jersey, in the transportation of lumber, steel rails and limestone. He was captain of a boat when but sixteen years of age, and continued his service until he was nineteen, when he was made superintendent of the Corning quarry which supplied stone for the building of the State Reformatory at Elmyra and for the Beecher Church in that city. Leaving this position, he became outside superintendent of mines for the Fallbrook Coal & Railroad Company at Fallbrook, Pennsylvania, where he re- mained two years. This was during the reign of the "Molly Maguires," an unlawful organization which at- tempted to dictate policies in operating mines and the members of which became outlaws by the thousands, the while they terrorized mining communities and shed much innocent blood. Captain Rease gained the enmity of this organization and caricature of skull and cross- bones was placed on the door of his home as a warning. After leaving Fallbrook he was transferred to Corning as baggage master and freight agent on the railroad oper- ated by the same company, and finally became a train conductor. January 1, 1880, he became general super- intendent of the Butler Colliery Company at Pittston, Penn- sylvania, in the service of which corporation he continued twelve years. He then, in 1892, came to West Virginia to assume charge of development work for the United States Coal & Iron Company in Randolph County, where he opened the company's first mine and erected its first tipple, at Harding. He became concerned also in the construction of the company's service railroad, and soon after the com- pletion of the Roaring Creek & Charleston Railroad, the Roaring Creek & Belington line also was constructed, this work having been done under the auspices of the Berwind, White Coal Mining Company, which bought out the other concern. The Belington & Beaver Creek Railroad was next built, between Belington and Weaver, to open up the coal owned by Captain Rease himself, the road having been built by Rease and Weaver. Captain Rease managed the mines and several railroads until 1901, when the properties were sold, the railroad lines being absorbed by other railroad companies.

Captain Rease then turned his attention to other devel- opment work, including the construction of the Consumers Heat, Light, Water & Power Company's plant at Beling- ton. He was the originator of the enterprise for utilizing the power of the Middle Fork of the Tygart River in the developing of a system for the supplying of water and elec- tricity for adjoining cities and towns of this section of the state. In this connection the Highland Water and Power Company was organized. They made surveys through Fair- mont, Grafton and other places, and then sold the con- trolling interest to the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company, which has failed thus far to institute further development work. Captain Rease is still interested in mining properties

that are producing coal successfully, and is still Southern representative of the Berwind, White Coal Mining Company. He was associated in the establishment of the first banking institution at Belington, and was president of the Beling- ton National Bank until its consolidation with the First National Bank, of which he continues a director. He has lived at Belington since it was a village of less than 100 population, and has been an influential force in the devel- opment and upbuilding of the now thriving little city, of which he has served several terms as mayor, besides having been president of the Board of Education. He cast his first presidential vote for Samuel J. Tilden, and has since continued unfaltering allegiance to the democratic party. He is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity.

On the 7th of January, 1873, at Corbettsville, New York, Captain Rease wedded Miss Anna C. Corbett, who was born at Corbettsville, that state, April 10, 1852, a daughter of Ira and Juliette (Bowes) Corbett. Mr. Corbett was born in Broome County, New York, and was there a successful farmer and extensive lumber manufacturer. Mrs. Rease was the sixth in a family of five sons and five daughters, of whom two sons and four daughters are living at the time of this writing, in 1922. Captain and Mrs. Rease he- came the parents of three children: Lena is the wife of A. H. Woodford, of Belington, and they have three chil- dren; Adelaide died in young womanhood; and Louanna is the wife of Rev. A. C. Carty, chaplain at the United States Navy Yard at Philadelphia, they having one child.

JESSE G. LAWSON, president and the organizer of the First National Bank of Bridgeport, Harrison County, has been one of the world's constructive workers, has enjoyed his work and has found life full of compensation. He has shown a fine sense of civic and personal stewardship, and has been specially interested in educational affairs.

Mr. Lawson is a native son of Harrison County, his birth having occurred on the family homestead farm on Bushy Fork of Elk Creek, seven miles south of Bridgeport, on the 17th of February, 1856. He is a son of Abner and Magdalena (Nutter) Lawson, who passed their entire lives in Harrison County, where the respective families were founded in the early pioneer days. Ahner Lawson was one of the substantial farmers and honored citizens of Harrison County, and was influential in community affairs of public order.

After receiving the discipline of the rural schools Jesse G. Lawson was for two terms a student in West Virginia College at Flemington, Taylor County. Later he continued his studies in well conducted "pay schools" in his native county and in Lewis County, and he put his acquirements to practical test when he became a teacher in the rural schools, his first term of school having been taught in Lewis County, in 1877, and he having later heen a successful teacher in the schools of Harrison County. He continued his activities in the pedagogic profession for twenty years, was progressive in his attitude, broadened his studies to meet the requirements of the advancing standards in local educational affairs, and did a service of enduring value, as is ever true when practical aid is given in teaching the youth of any locality in any period. Mr. Lawson's deep appreciation of the value of popular education has caused him to maintain at all times a deep interest in the further- ing of educational work in his home county and state.

In 1896 Mr. Lawson was elected assessor of what was then known as the lower assessment district of Harrison County, of which office he continued the incumbent four years, besides which he served four years as deputy asses- sor. While engaged in teaching he maintained his home on his well improved farm on Bushy Creek, a property which he still owns, though Bridgeport has been his place of residence since March 17, 1898.

In 1920 Mr. Lawson became one of the leading promoters in the organization of the First National Bank of Bridge- port, and through his vigorous and well ordered campaign was effected the sale of all of the stock of the new institu- tion, which received its charter on the 19th of October of that year and which bases its operations on a capital stock of $50,000. He was elected president of the bank, and as

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its chief executive has directed its policies with character- istic discrimination and ability. In politics Mr. Lawson gives staunch allegiance to the republican party, he is af- filiated with the Masonic fraternity, and he and his family hold membership in the Methodist Protestant Church at Bridgeport, he being a teacher in its Sunday School and the leader of the parents' class in the same.

On the 8th of September, 1897, was solemnized the mar- riage of Mr. Lawson and Miss Minnie C. Henry, of Tyrcon- nell, Taylor County, she being a daughter of John H. and Eliza (Marker) Henry. Mr. and Mrs. Lawson have three children: Marion G., who remains at the parental home, is a musician of exceptional and well developed talent; Magdalena H. is, in 1922, a student in Western Maryland College at Westminster, Maryland, where she is preparing herself for teaching; and John H. Abner is a member of the senior class in the Bridgeport High School.

ORIN C. BRADLEY, D. V. S., is one of the skilled and suc- cessful veterinary surgeons of Monongalia County, where he controls a substantial praetiee, with residence and profes- sional headquarters at Crossroads, Battelle District, on one of the rural mail routes from Wadestown, and about thirty miles west of Morgantown, the county seat.

Doctor Bradley was born in Venango County, Pennsyl- vania, and the place of his nativity, Bradleytown, is a village that was named in honor of his grandfather, John J. Brad ley. The latter's son and namesake, John J., Jr., passed his entire life in that immediate section of the old Keystone State, and there his son, Doctor Bradley of this sketch, was reared to adult age. He made good use of the educa- tional advantages afforded him and at the age of eighteen years hegan teaching in the distriet schools of his native county. Thereafter he continued his studies in the Penn- sylvania State Normal School at Edinboro, and in preparing for his profession he took a course in a leading veterinary college in the City of Toronto, Canada, and in the National Veterinary College at Washington, D. C., in which latter he was graduated in 1892, the school later becoming affiliated with Georgetown University. Instead of receiving the gold medal customarily awarded for highest class standing in the college Docotor Bradley was more emphatically honored by the faculty of the institution in being accorded the highest- grade diploma, together with the degree of Doctor of Veterinary Surgery. Nine years after his graduation the Doctor took an effective post-graduate course in the Chicago Veterinary College, which holds highest rank of all institu- tions of the kind in the United States.

In 1894 Doctor Bradley established himself in the practice of his profession at Mannington, Marion County, West Vir- ginia, where he remained until 1905, when he removed to his present place of residence in Monongalia County. In 1900 he served as mayor of Mannington, the charter of which city had been amended in such a way as to lead to a period of splendid civic and material advancement, in which Doctor Bradley, as mayor, played an influential part. At Crossroads Doctor Bradley owns and resides upon a fine farm of 418 acres, to the active management of which he gives his attention, besides continuing in the practice of his profession and having been for fifteen years associated with oil-production industry, in which connection he is president of the Moon Oil & Gas Company, which is con- ducting successful operations on three large farms near Salem, Harrison County. Doctor Bradley became asso- ciated also with the late G. M. Allender, of Fairmont, in oil operations in Harrison and Monongalia counties, with about eighteen wells and with two strings of drilling tools. This enterprise was conducted under the firm name of Brad- ley & Allender until the death of Mr. Allender in 1916, when Doctor Bradley purchased the interests of his de- ceased partner. He gives much of his time to his oil- producing interests. He has high standing in his profes- sion, has done considerable professional service for the state and is a valued member and for two years president of the West Virginia State Veterinary Association. Doctor Bradley is one of the progressive business men and loyal and public-spirited citizens of his adopted state, finds his chief recreation in hunting and fishing expeditions, is

specially vigorous in supporting the construction of good roads, is a Knight Templar Mason and in the time-honored fraternity has received also the thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite.

In April, 1905, Doctor Bradley wedded Mrs. Alice (Barr) Carrothers, widow of A. J. Carrothers, of Crossroads, Monon- galia County, where he had been a representative agricul- turist and stock-grower of his native county. He was born near Morgantown and his death occurred in 1896. Mr. and Mrs. Carrothers became the parents of four children, Edna, Mary, John and Audrey. For a portion of the time after their marriage Doctor and Mrs. Bradley resided at Fairmont in order that the children might there attend school, the summer seasons being passed on the farm at Crossroads. Mrs. Bradley passed to the life eternal in the year 1910, and the Doctor kept his stepchildren together and cared for them with true paternal solicitude. Edna, eldest of the children, is, in 1921, a student in Boston Uni- versity, where she is taking a course that shall prepare her for religious service in the rural districts of her native state, she having already taken active part in Sunday-School work in West Virginia. Mary, who is a graduate nurse of marked ability, is now engaged in public-health nursing serviee in the mountain districts of West Virginia. John is actively associated with the work and management of the home farm. Audrey graduated from Mount de Chantel Academy at Wheeling, is a talented teacher of music and is at the head of children's Sunday School work in Monon- galia County.

THE MCBEE FAMILY, originally Macbees, are of Scotch Highland extraction. The history of the family in West Virginia begins in the days of the Revolution in which some members were engaged. Sometime previous to 1790, a sister and five brothers crossed the Blue Ridge from Virginia, one of the boys stopping in Baltimore. The other four settled at Cheat Neck, and on the property now owned by John Pringle. They built a block house for defense against the Indians, remains of which may still be seen. One of the four, William, started back to Virginia after the com- pletion of this fort, and was never heard of afterward. Another of them, Philip, later moved to Grant County, Ken- tneky. The two who remained here were Alexander, nick- named "Sonny" and Zadok. To their sister's husband, Joseph Pope, Jr., Governor Robert Brooke granted a patent bearing the date October 6, 1788, for 400 acres of land on Booth's Creek. This tract is now owned in part by Sanford and Zadoc Thomas, great-grandsons of Zadok, who died in 1819.

Alexander died in 1828 leaving four children, Mary, who married John England, of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania ; William, Walter and Zadoc Thomas. It is with son Zadoc Thomas and his descendants that this history is chiefly con- cerned. He was born at Clinton Furnace, May 16, 1814, and died there March 23, 1895. His wife was Sarah Steel, daughter of Thomas and Eleanor (Thorn) Steel. She was born at Steele Farm, now owned by Brice De Vault, October 12, 1809, and died December 23, 1858. Thomas MeBee was a man of most exemplary character. He put into daily practice his belief that everyone should be honest and industrious, and he was faithful in carrying out every obligation he ever assumed. He was a stanch democrat, and was for years a deacon in the Goshen Baptist Church. Of his four children the oldest was Thomas H. The second, Cordelia A., horn January 1, 1842, was married to Eugene Lanham March 13, 1866, and she died December 20, 1913, leaving five children, named Flora, Thomas, Frank, Harvey and George. Caleb Nelson, the third of the family, born September 17, 1843, was a Union soldier in Company C of the Fourteenth West Virginia Infantry, and died Novem- her 14, 1864, from wounds received at the battle of Carter's Farm in Virginia July 24, 1864. He died at Clayersville, Maryland, and was buried in the McBee family cemetery at Ridgedale. The youngest of the children of Thomas McBee was Elizabeth, who was born June 15, 1847, was married December 31, 1868, to Thomas Price, and died May 15, 1902, being survived by children Darius, William, Fleming, Marshall, Walter and Tana.

Guy H Burnside

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Thomas H. MeBee was born at Clinton Furnace June 14, 1838, and in many ways his life was typical of the sturdy example set him by his father. He was reared on the farm, had a subscription school education and in 1861 en- listed to help preserve the Union. He served with Company A of the Third West Virginia Infantry, later being trans- ferred to the Second West Virginia Cavalry, and while in the army he participated iu the battles of McDowell's Bluff, Cross Keys, Rappahannock, Bull Run, Hedgesville, Rocky Gap and Drop Mountain. December 27, 1864, he married Amelia Cartwright, daughter of Jacob and Rebecca Cart- wright, of English ancestry. Amelia was born April 4, 1841, at Rosedale, across the Monongahela River from Point Marion, in Fayette County, Pennsylvania. Following his marriage Thomas H. MeBee moved to a farm at Halleck in Clinton District of Monongalia County, where he became one of the most prosperous farmers and business men in that section, always a man of influence in his community. Phys- ically he was a magnificent specimen of manhood, standing six feet, 21/2 inches, weighing 250 pounds. His inexhaustible energy he applied to farming and business in a way to return success, and out of his prosperity he was able to assist his neighbors and to give all his children who de- sired it a college education. A stanch republican, he was proud of the fact that he had helped preserve the union of states and delighted in the companionship of his old army comrades. He was a member of the Baptist Church. He died December 13, 1900, and on January 9, 1909, his wife Amelia, passed away at Morgantown. Of their ten children five reached mature years. The oldest of these, Charles L., is a resident of Morgantown and by his mar- riage to Allie Dorsey has three children, Maude, Robert and Mazie. The second, Perry Caleb, who graduated in 1896 from the University of West Virginia, spent twenty years of his life as a city school superintendent in this state, earning a high place in educational affairs. He served one term in the State Legislature as representative from Monongalia County, and at the time of his death, May 5, 1918, was actively engaged in the coal business, owning and operating the Mile Ground Coal Mine Com- pany. He married Ethel Carle, who survives him. The third child, Repta, lives with her brother Doctor MeBee. Claude studied in West Virginia University, graduated from Delaware, Ohio, Business College, was for several years connected with the public schools and is now in the coal business at Morgantown. He married Lena Griffin of Ken- tucky.

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History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 3, Part 175

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