History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 3, Part 177

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CHARLES D. SMITH has been engaged in the practice of law at Parsons, judicial center of Tucker County, for a period of twenty years, and has gained prestige as one of the able and representative members of the bar of this part of the state. Prior to coming to Parsons he had been engaged in practice at Terra Alta, Preston County, about two years.

Mr. Smith was born in Montgomery County, Maryland. near the Frederick County line, and the date of his nativity was June 21, 1870. He was reared in the Village of Hyatts- town, and his discipline in the public schools was supple- mented by a course in the Maryland State Normal School in the City of Baltimore. After leaving this institution in 1891 he became a teacher in the rural schools of Howard County, Maryland, and he continued his effective service in the pedagogic profession seven years, during about five of which he was principal of the schools at Oakland, besides having taught in summer normal schools. His final work as a teacher was at Kensington, Maryland, and in 1900 he was graduated in the law department of George Washing- ton University at Washington, D. C. After thns receiving his degree of Bachelor of Laws he held for a short interval a position as bookkeeper in the Garrett National Bank at Oakland, Maryland, but before the close of the year he located at Terra Alta, West Virginia, where he continued in the practice of law until his removal to Parsons, as noted in the opening paragraph of this sketch. His practice has

included connection with numerous cases of important order, both civil and criminal, and he is known as a strong and resourceful trial lawyer. Upon coming to Tucker County he was made assistant prosecuting attorney under William G. Conley, with whom he was associated in law practice and who later became attorney general of the state. Mr. Smith became acting prosecuting attorney of the county to fill out the term of Mr. Conley when the latter retired. In 1904 he was elected prosecuting attorney. He was re-elected in 1908, and retired at the end of his second term. In 1916 he was again called to this office, in which he thus served a third term. He effected, as prosecutor for the county, the first conviction for murder in the first degree ever recorded in Tucker County. In the World war period Mr. Smith was ex-officio advisor of the selective-service board of the county, besides serving as Government appeal agent for the county and as advisor of the food administrator of the county. His wife was actively identified with the women's auxiliary war work and did much to advance the service of the Red Cross. Mr. Smith is a republican in politics and is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Loyal Order of Moose and the Fraternal Order of Eagles.

June 29, 1904, recorded the marriage of Mr. Smith and Miss Edith Townshend, who was born at Oakland, Mary- land, a daughter of Singleton L. and Elizabeth (Jones) Townshend, the father having long been a leading merchant at Oakland. Mrs. Smith received excellent educational advantages, including those of private schools and of the Brier Bend Seminary at Mountain Lake Park, Maryland. Mr. and Mrs. Smith have three children: Edith Dorsey, Arra Townshend and Mary Rawlings.

MICHAEL E. WHELAN, M. D. The duties and labors of a physician and surgeon, practicing largely in a country district, have been carried and faithfully discharged by Dr. Michael E. Whelan for over forty years. His home dur- ing most of his practice has been at Roanoke, and in that community no citizeu enjoys a higher degree of esteem.

Doctor Whelan was born on Long Island, September 19, 1857, son of James and Johanna (Welsh) Whelan. His parents were natives of Ireland, where they were reared, educated and married, and on coming to the United States they lived for a time around New York and then in Penn- sylvania, where James Whelan took up contracting of rail- road construction. He built a section of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad to West Union, West Virginia. Later he filled other contracts of a similar nature, and in the mean- time bought a farm on Mud Lick Run, three miles south of Weston. For many years he lived on the farm and operated it, and finally left the country and moved to a comfortable home on Chestnut Street in Weston, where he and his wife both died. They were devout Catholics, and he was a stanch believer in the principles of the democratic party. They had a family of sixteen children, all of whom grew to mature years and five are now living: A. F. Whelan, of Weston; Thomas, of Weston; Michael E .; Margaret, widow of John Morrison; and Miss Julia.

Michael E. Whelan had the home farm as the environment of his childhood and youth. He attended the public schools, and at the age of seventeen began doing a man's part on the farm in the summer and taught winter terms of school in one district four successive terms. While operating a hotel he studied medicine for two years under Dr. William Bland, and then completed his course in the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Baltimore, where he took the three years course. On returning to West Virginia, Doctor Whelan practiced at Burnsville in Braxton County one year, and in 1880 established his home and office at Roanoke, where for four successive decades he has rendered the serv- ice of a skillful and sympathetic physician. He is a member of the County, State and American Medical associations.

On October 28, 1903, Doctor Whelan married Ella Carney, who was born May 31, 1873, in Braxton County. They have one son, James Edward, born October 17, 1905. He is a graduate of the Roanoke High School and is now a student in Rockhill College at Ellicott City, Maryland. Doctor and Mrs. Whelan are members of the Catholic Church, and he does his voting as a democrat. He has prospered in his

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professional work, and is the owner of 500 acres of land n. Lewis County and considerable other real estate. His arms are operated by tenants.

HON. JAMES WESTON WEIR. In journalistic circles, political activities and public life in Randolph County here are few names that are better known than that of Hon. James Weston Weir. His career has been one in which he has won honors in several fields of endeavor, and le is now the editor and publisher of the Randolph Review at Elkins, and one of the most prominent and influential democrats in his section of the state.

James Weston Weir was born at New Brunswick, New Jersey, March 12, 1882, and is a son of Silas E. and May (Frothingham) Weir. On the paternal side he is of Scotch- Irish descent and on the maternal side of English ancestry. His father was born at Germantown, Pennsylvania, and by profession was a civil engineer. For a time he was assistant engineer for the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad, and after- ward chief engineer for the old West Virginia Central Railroad, now a part of the Western Maryland system, and the occasion of his locating at Elkins in 1896 was in con- lection with his duties in the latter position. About two years after his arrival at Elkins he died, when only forty- ive years of age. He married at Camden, New Jersey, May Frothingham, who survives him as a resident of Wash- ngton, D. C.

The place of residence of the family changed frequently during the youth of James Weston Weir, owing to the nature of his father's vocation, but during the winter months the family lived at Washington, D. C., where the lad attended the public schools, which included one year in high school. He had just reached his majority, in 1903, when he accepted a position on the editorial staff of the Wheeling Intelligencer as a reporter, and during a part of 1904 held a like position on the Columbus (Ohio) Evening Dispatch. Returning to Wheeling, he became assistant secretary of the State Board of Trade, but about a year later returned to journalism as editor of the Randolph Enterprise at Elkins. This position he held until 1911. In the meantime, in 1908, he had been elected to the State Legislature, and served one term in the House of Delegates. In the spring of 1911 be became secretary to United States Senator C. W. Watson, of Fairmont, a position which he held for two years, Senator Watson having been elected to fill an unexpired term of that duration. In 1913 Mr. Weir established the Randolph Review, a weekly newspaper, which he has since edited and published. He was again elected to the West Virginia House of Delegates in 1914, and two years later was re- elected to succeed himself in that office, but resigned in March, 1917, to become the private secretary of Governor Cornwell, a position which he held during the four years of that executive's administration. In May, 1921, he was chosen field secretary for the West Virginia Publishers and Employing Printers Association, a post which he still retains.

Mr. Weir is a Chapter degree Mason and a member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. He belongs also to the Rotary Club of Elkins and the Chamber of Commerce, and his religious affiliation is with the Presby- terian Church. In 1909 he married Miss Vie Harding, the youngest daughter of the late Maj. Joseph French Harding. Major Harding was born in Anne Arundel County, Mary- land, November 9, 1838, a son of Joseph and Alice (Elliott) Harding, and died in 1919, at Elkins, West Virginia. At the outbreak of the war between the states, Major Harding entered the service of the Confederacy and served gallantly until the close of that struggle, rising to the rank of major and being named for promotion to colonel just before the close of hostilities. After the war he took up the life of a civilian and became one of the prominent and influential men of his community. He served two terms in the West Virginia Legislature as representative from Randolph and Tucker counties, won distinction as a member of the Con- stitutional Convention of 1872 and was sheriff of Randolph County from 1877 to 1881. In 1885 he commenced the practice of law at Elkins, having as his partner his eon Clare W. Harding, who afterward served two terms as )l. III-68

county prosecuting attorney. His other children were: French Leslie, now manager of the Randolph Review; Luceba M .; Roella; Jo L., and Vie, the wife of Hon. James W. Weir. The mother of these children was formerly Miss Luceba Wilmoth, of Randolph County, this state.

ROBERT WIRT DUNHAM, M. D. There is one profession, that of the medical practitioner, which opens to its fol- lowers an extremely wide range of usefulness. Its sphere is many-sided, and that particular phase which accomplishes the more than splendid work of preserving God-given life says nothing of the world of sorrow that is banished or of the happiness which is re-enthroned through health restored at the exercise of the divine art. It is indeed an art which approaches divinity, and those who study it, mellowed and enriched as they are through their association with un- masked humanity, are possessed of a priceless ability to answer the command to "heal the sick."" Among the lead- ers of the Randolph County medical fraternity is Dr. Robert Wirt Dunham, of Elkins, who since taking up his practice in this community has gained the confidence of all and the gratitude of many.

Doctor Dunham was born at Belington, Barbour County, West Virginia, November 19, 1881, and is a son of Jacob A. and Lola Montes (Shurtleff) Dunham. His paternal grandfather was Rev. Robert Foster Dunham, who was a native of New Jersey, and as a youth came to what is now West Virginia with his father, Jacob Dunham, who settled in Taylor County. Reverend Dunham was a pioneer Baptist preacher, his field of labor including Barbour, Randolph and Taylor counties. He lived to the remarkable age of ninety-seven years, and at his death it was said of him: "A grand old man has passed away." The maternal grandfather of Doctor Dunham was Frank Shurtleff, who came from Boston, Massachusetts, and settled in Barbour County, West Virginia, where he engaged in agricultural pursuits until his death, which occurred when he was fifty- one or fifty-two years of age. He married Lucinda Booth, a daughter of Gen. Isaac Booth, one of the makers of his- tory in what is now West Virginia.

Jacob A. Dunham was born in Tyler County, West Vir- ginia, and for many years was engaged in agricultural pur- suits in Barbour County, where he was the owner of a farm in the vicinity of Belington. He died at the age of sixty- seven years, highly esteemed and respected as a good citizen and honorable man of affairs. In politics he was a demo- crat, but he did not seek political honors. With Mrs. Dun- ham, who died when fifty-three years of age, he belonged to the Baptist Church. They were the parents of four chil- dren: Rhoda F .; Robert Wirt, of this notice; Emma Q .; and Dr. Porter C., who is engaged in the practice of dentis- try at Bridgeport, West Virginia.

Robert Wirt Dunham was reared on the home farm, and after attending the country schools went to the Belington High School, from which he was graduated. From 1901 to 1905 he was a student at West Virginia University, to obtain further literary training preparatory to the study of medicine. He graduated from the College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1908, receiving his degree of Doctor of Medicine, and in the same year was also given a degree of the same kind by West Virginia University. Doctor Dun- ham began the practice of his profession at Junior, West Virginia, but in a few months removed to Bemis, this state, where he remained in practice for about ten years. He next went to Atlanta, Georgia, to continue his professional ac- tivities. Subsequently he returned to West Virginia for a visit. While here, in 1919, he was offered the post of medical examiner for the Western Maryland Railroad, and, accepting, located at Elkins, where he has since discharged the duties attached to that position and has also carried on a general practice. He has built up a large clientele and is now accounted one of the leaders of the Randolph County profession. Doctor Dunham is a close and careful student and has done post-graduate work at the Post-Graduate School of Medicine, New York City; Washington University, St. Louis; Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, and at Harvard. He is a member of the Tri-County Medical So- ciety, the West Virginia Medical Society and the American

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Medical Association. As a fraternalist he is a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason, a Knight Templar and a Noble of the Mystic Shrine, and also holds membership in the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. His religious affiliation is with the Baptist Church. Doctor Dunham is unmarried.

GEN. WILLIAM WALTER SCOTT, former brigadier general of the West Virginia National Guard, still keeps his vot- ing residence at Fairmont, where he began the practice of law thirty years ago, but duty early called him to Wash- ington, where he was an assistant in the Department of Justice and where for the past decade he has handled a large volume of practice, largely in the Federal Courts and as a member of the Bar of the District of Columbia and the Supreme Court of the United States.

General Scott was born at Fairmont in 1879, son of Newton J. and Mary S. (Scott) Scott. His parents bore the same family name but were not relatives. Newton J. Scott was a Union soldier in a West Virginia regiment during the Civil war. The family is of old Virginia stock of Scotch ancestry. William Walter Scott, grandfather of his namesake, was the son of Thomas Scott, a Virginia soldier who lost an arm in the battle of New Orleans in 1815. General Scott's maternal ancestors lived in Arm- strong County, Pennsylvania.

William W. Scott after leaving the common schools be- came a practical printer and entered the printing estab- lishment of the West Virginian of Fairmont, West Vir- ginia, a weekly news sheet. Later he became manager of the Mannington Times, of Mannington, West Virginia. He read law in the office of Scott & Meredith in Fairmont, was admitted to the bar in his home county and began prac- tice in 1892. While in Washington he continued his studies in the National Law School, from which he received two degrees, Master and Bachelor of Laws.

Mr. Scott went to Washington in 1897 to become assis- tant in the office of Joseph McKenna, attorney general in President Mckinley's cabinet, now a justice of the Su- preme Court. In the attorney general's department Mr. Scott was assigned to the defense of suits against the United States, duties that took him at times to distant parts of the United States. His work in the Department of Justice continued until 1912, in which year he resigned, his resignation being effective January 1, 1913. He then established his present offices for private practice in the Woodward Building. General Scott handles a general prac- tice, but chiefly as representative of clients in suits against the United States. He is one of the lawyers of highest standing in the West Virginia bar. For two years after leaving the Department of Justice he edited the reports of the United States Court of Claims. His practice in that court, particularly in the preparation of his briefs, has received high commendation from the bench.

His connection with the West Virginia National Guard began in 1894. That year he organized and was made captain of Company G at Fairmont, a unit of the First West Virginia Regiment. Subsequent promotions made him major, lieutenant colonel, colonel and finally, in 1905, bri- gadier general by appointment of Governor Dawson in command of all West Virginia troops in the National Guard composed of the First and Second Regiments. General Scott kept up his active connection with the National Guard during his official connections in Washington. He is a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason, and is a past master and past high priest at Washington.

He married Miss Claudia Rice, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. A. O. Rice, of Fairmont, West Virginia, and a niece of Col. Dick Fast of Morgantown, West Virginia. General Scott has a son, Capt. William Ward Scott, of the United States Marine Corps. He was educated in the schools of Washington, the University of Michigan, and joined the Marine Corps in February, 1917, before America entered the war. He was made a second lieutenant, and by sub- sequent promotions became captain. During the greater part of the war he was in command of a detachment of Marines on board the Galveston, escorting and convoying troops and supplies to France.

ANTHONY R. BROWN, M. D., of Clay, judicial center of Clay County, has passed the psalmist's span of three score years and ten, but is still engaged in the active and success- ful practice of his profession, in which he has made a rec- ord of faithful and effective service, the while he has broadened the province of his work to include also practice as a veterinary surgeon.

Doctor Brown was born in Nicholas County, West Vir- ginia, February 15, 1848, and is a son of John and Susan (Neal) Brown, both likewise natives of that county and both representatives of pioneer families there. John Brown was born in the year 1812, was reared on a pioneer farm, and he eventually became one of the successful practicing physicians in his native county, where he remained until 1855. He then removed to Clay County, where he built up a large and substantial general practice, in connection with which he manifested a high sense of personal and profes- sional stewardship. He became a loyal supporter of the cause of the republican party, and both he and his wife were members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. Of the nine children only two are now living, the subject of this sketch being the younger, and the elder brother, Dr. George W., being engaged in the practice of medicine at Lizemores, Clay County.

Dr. Anthony R. Brown was reared on the home farm and attended the schools of the locality and period. He was a lad of sixteen years when his youthful patriotism led him to enter the Union service in the Civil war, and as a member of a West Virginia regiment of volunteer in- fantry he continued in service until the close of the war. Thereafter he studied medicine under effective private pre- ceptorship, and after thus duly qualifying himself he en- gaged in the practice of his chosen profession, in which his success attests alike his technical skill and his unqualified personal popularity. He has maintained his residence in the Village of Clay since 1902, and in his professional service he has ever been ready to minister to those in suffering or distress, no matter how great the labor involved, how in- clement the weather or how difficult the incidental traversing of muddy or unimproved roads. He has thus gained the gratitude and appreciative regard of those whom he has thus unselfishly served, and he is one of the substantial and honored citizens of Clay County. He is a republican in politics and is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Grand Army of the Republic.

As a young man Doctor Brown wedded Miss Elizabeth D. Jarett, and her death occurred in 1908. Of the six children of this union four are living. In 1909 Doctor Brown mar- ried Miss Ella Taylor, who was born in Braxton County, July 1, 1887, the three children of this union being William R., Ardelle M. and Naomi V.

EDGAR H. WILLIAMS. Among the men of business im- portance in Pocahontas County perhaps none are better known than is Edgar H. Williams, of Marlinton, civil en- gineer, lumber merchant and farmer, and formerly county surveyor. Mr. Williams has been a life-long resident of Pocahontas County, and on the maternal side is of Revolu- tionary stock and a descendant of one of the earliest settlers in this section.

Edgar H. Williams was born four miles north of Edray, West Virginia, October 18, 1884, the youngest of a family! of four children born to Dr. Richard and Hannah (Sharp) Williams. His father died when he was young and he was reared by his maternal grandfather, Alexander Sharp, who was a son of William Sharp II and a grandson of William Sharp, who settled in what is now Pocahontas County in 1773. Later he served as a soldier and scout in the Revo- lutionary war. He married Mary Meeks, and they had sev- eral daughters and two sons, John and William. William Sharp II married Elizabeth Waddell, and one of their four- teen children was named Alexander. He married Mary Dilley, a daughter of Martin Dilley. They had but one daughter, Hannah, who became the wife of Dr. Richard Williams and the mother of Edgar H. Williams.

Dr. Richard Williams was born in County Cork, Ireland. He graduated with the degree of M. D. from Dublin Uni-

courscolt

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versity, where he also had high standing in the field of chemistry. He then entered the English army and saw service in India. In 1876 he came to the United States and established himself in the practice of medicine in the vicinity of Edray, West Virginia, and his practice soon ex- tended over a wide area. He became an American citizen, and his learning and sterling qualities made him a highly valued one. To his marriage with Hannah Sharp the fol- lowing children were born: Alexander Dennis, Mollie (Mrs. Benjamin Johnson), Lena (Mrs. Elmer Poage), and Edgar H. Alexander Dennis Williams is an ex-member of the State Legislature and a resident of Morgautown. He served six years as state road commissioner and is the author of the present State Road Law.

Edgar H. Williams attended the public schools and spent one year at Marshall College. He studied civil engineering, and later served four years as county surveyor, but during the greater part of his life has been identified with the lumber business, in which he is largely interested at the present time. He also gives considerable attention to bis farm of 100 acres, a valuable, well developed property, and he owns additionally a tract of ninety acres of grazing land. His various undertakings are profitably managed, and he is considered a business man of foresight and good judgment.

Mr. Williams married, May 6, 1913, Miss Rose Poage, who belongs to an old Pocahontas County family and is a daugh- ter of John R. and Elizabeth (Sharp) Poage, of Poage's Lane, this county. Mr. and Mrs. Williams have two chil- dren: Edgar Moffett and Thelma Elizabeth. In political life Mr. Williams has always been identified with the re- publican party. He has long been interested in increasing the efficiency of the public schools and has been president of the Board of Education. He is now serving in his second year as a county commissioner. For many years he has been a member of the Masonic fraternity.

SAMUEL B. WALLACE. One of the large business con- cerns at Marlinton, West Virginia, is the wholesale drug house of S. B. Wallace & Company, which was founded in 1903, in a small way, by its present president and treasurer, Samuel B. Wallace. Questioned concerning the evident success that has crowned his efforts, Mr. Wallace attributes it to hard work, but in no complaining mood, for be is quick to add "work is a blessed privilege." This undoubtedly is considered rank heresay by those of his fellow men who apparently take pleasure in awaiting a mythical "oppor- tunity" to catch up with them, but Mr. Wallace has been in the habit of making opportunities rather than awaiting them, and financial success and mental contentment have rewarded him.

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History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 3, Part 177

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