History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 3, Part 179

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At Point Pleasant in Mason County July 17, 1907, Doctor Marks married Miss Josephine Byrd. Mrs. Marks is a graduate of the Mountain State Business College at Parkers- burg, and for eighteen months before her marriage was a stenographer at the Spencer State Hospital for the Insane. She now performs the duties of postmistress at Walton. Doctor and Mrs. Marks have two children: Perry F., Jr., horn December 31, 1911; and Cornelius F., born April 5, 1915.

ENOCH STAATS. Some of the many stanch friends of Enoch Staats, County Court clerk of Jackson County, recall him as a teacher and farmer in the county, though for the past dozen years his work has been at the county seat of Ripley either as deputy or head of the office of County Court clerk.

Staats is one of the old and well known names of Jackson County. The founder of the family was Isaac

Staats, who was born in Rockingham County, Virginia, i 1799, and as a young man moved to what is now Jackso County, West Virginia, and became owner and operato of a grist mill, long known in the geography of the count as Staats Mill. Though an old man at the time, he served as a member of the Home Guards during the Civil war He died at Staats Mill in 1885. Isaac Staats married a Mis Tolley, who was born in that portion of old Mason Count that is now Jackson County. Their son, William Staats was born at Staats Mill in 1841, and chose farming as hi vocation. He was reared and married at Staats Mill, bu later moved to the vicinity of Ripley, and he owned and operated a large and prosperous farm four miles south of that town, where he died in 1914. He was a member o the Home Scouts during the Civil war, was an independen democrat in politics, and very closely identified with the Methodist Protestant Church. William Staats married Emily J. Casto, who was born at Staats Mill in 1847, and died at the home farm four miles south of Ripley in 1910 She became the mother of seven children: Cordelia, who died at Parchment Valley, Jackson County, in 1898, wife of Lovell M. Parsons, the well known Ripley farmer and banker; Avah B., who died at Fairplain, Jackson County in 1900, wife of Jacob Post, now a retired farmer of tha; community; Louisa, wife of David C. Shamblen, a farmer at Fairplain; Hollie F., a farmer at Flatrock in Mason County; subject of this sketch; Dora, wife of C. L. Skid more, a farmer at Skidmore in Jackson County; and Cora L., wife of Everett Simmons, a farmer at Kenna in Jack son County.

Enoch Staats was born October 7, 1875, and grew up or the home farm south of Ripley. He attended rural schools there, the public schools at Ripley, in 1896 graduated from the Mountain State Business College at Parkersburg, and during 1897-98 attended the State Normal School at Glen. ville in Gilmer County. Mr. Staats began teaching at the age of eighteen. His work was altogether in the rural districts of Jackson County, where he taught a total of fifteen terms, devoting his time and energies in the intervals to farming. This phase of his career was concluded in 1909, when he was made deputy County Court clerk, and he served twelve years in that capacity, 1909-20. In 1920 he was chosen by election as County Court clerk for the six year term beginning in January, 1921.

Mr. Staats is a republican, active in the Methodist Protestant Church, and has served as Sunday School super- intendent, and is affiliated with Ripley Lodge No. 16, A. F. and A. M., Ripley Lodge No. 30, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and Walker Wright Lodge No. 5, Knights of Pythias. He is a stockholder and director in the Bank of Ripley, owns a farm of 275 acres four miles south of Ripley, on Mill Creek, and another farm of 600 acres four miles east of Ripley, on Sycamore Creek. His home is a fine suburban place, recently completed, on a choice tract of seven acres on the Charleston Pike.

In 1899, at Ripley, Mr. Staats married Miss Allie Carney. daughter of William A. and Rosa (Wedge) Carney, a well known family living two miles east of Ripley. Mr. and Mrs. Staats have four children: William, born November 12, 1900, is a graduate of the Ripley High School, attended Berea College at Berea, Kentucky, and is now teaching at Salt Hill in Jackson County; Delbert born December 28, 1903, is a graduate of the Ripley High School and a teacher at Tracefork; Russell, born in 1906, and Corinne, born in 1910, are students in the public schools at Ripley.

GARLAND TODD THAYER. The South Side Foundry and Machine Works, of Charleston, of which Garland Todd Thayer is president and owner, is an important industry of that city and has been established for fifty years. It has manufactured, sold and installed more machinery and equipment for coal mines than any institution of its kind in the state.

Two brothers, O. A. and W. T. Thayer, in 1863 established a foundry and machine works at Malden, West Virginia, which was then the active business center of the Kanawha Valley, in fact that town was larger and more important at

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hat time than Charleston. The principal industry of the alley was the manufacture of salt, and many furnaces were established. The Thayer brothers established a foundry nd machine works and manufactured steam engines and ther equipment for these furnaces. A few years later hey realized Charleston would prove a more favorable enter for their plant, and it was removed to its present ocation on the south side of the Kanawha River opposite Charleston and adjacent to the Chesapeake and Ohio Rail- vay (then in the course of construction). The entire plant vas moved from Malden to Charleston in 1872, just fifty years ago. The brothers then engaged in the manufacture of machinery and special equipment required for coal nines, including haulage and hoisting engines and ma- hinery used for coal tipples and other mining operations. About the year 1895 the two brothers who founded the con- ern retired from its active management, which was taken ap by the subject of this sketch. In 1900 the South Side Foundry and Machine Works was incorporated with a capital of $100,000.00. G. T. Thayer, with his son, G. T., Jr., how own the plant, the former having purchased the interests of all the others. This company specializes in machinery and equipment for the coal mining industry. In normal imes from 125 to 150 men are employed. The foundry is well equipped for making castings for almost any purpose, both heavy and light. The company manufactures castings for many of the industries located within the Kanawha Valley and elsewhere, and enjoys the reputation of supplying only the highest grade of mining machinery and equip- ment. The site secured by the brothers over fifty years ago has proved to be an excellent location for the business, being situated between the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway and the Kanawha River, thus affording excellent shipping facilities, both by water and rail.

Messrs. Otis A. and William T. Thayer, the founders of this business, were born in the Kanawha Valley, sons of Job Thayer, who was a native of Braintree, Massachusetts. O. A. Thayer died in 1900 and his brother, W. T. Thayer, in 1901. Both owned coal lands in Fayette County, West Virginia, and these properties were developed and are now under lease. One of their associates in the coal businss was Col. Joseph L. Benry, a well known coal operator in the New River coal district of West Virginia.

Garland Todd Thayer is a son of Otis A. Thayer. Early in life he learned all details of the mechanical end of the industry, and is thoroughly familiar with every phase of the foundry and machine business. His close, personal supervision of the industry has resulted iu the continued successful operation of the plant. He was married in 1892 to Miss Gertrude Venable, whose father, M. W. Venable, is a well known civil and mining engineer of Charleston. Mr. and Mrs. Thayer have four children, three daughters and a son, Garland Todd, Jr., who is secretary of the South Side Foundry and Machine Works and is connected with his father in the operation of the business.

WALTER S. HALLANAN. State Tax Commissioner Walter S. Hallanan, one of the youngest and most popular officials at the state capitol, has had a remarkable career as a journalist and public official.

Born at Huntington, West Virginia, in 1890, he is the son of Dr. Thomas and Martha (Blake) Hallanan. His father died October 15, 1921, at the Hallanan homestead in Barboursville, after a long and distinguished career as a physician and writer. His mother still resides at Barboursville.

Most of Mr. Hallanan's life was spent in Cabell County. He was educated in the public schools at Huntington and afterward was graduated from Morris Harvey College at Barboursville. Immediately after finishing college he en- tered the newspaper field, being employed as a reporter on the Huntington Herald. He shortly afterward became editor of the paper, and in 1909, when the paper con- solidated with The Dispatch, he became managing editor of The Huntington Herald-Dispatch, one of the state's leading dailies.

Mr. Hallanan first attracted state-wide attention in con- nection with his handling of the publicity bureau of the

Republican State Committee during the campaign of 1916. The republican forces in the state were divided on the Taft-Roosevelt issue, and to his tact and ability in main- taining the common interest of both factions in the state ticket is credited the success of the republican party in West Virginia during the campaign. West Virginia was the only normal republican state which elected a repub- lican governor that fall.

Mr. Hallanan gave up journalism in 1913, when he was appointed private secretary to Governor Henry D. Hat- field. On March 1, 1917, near the close of Governor Hatfield's term of office, he was appointed state tax com- missioner. In September, 1921, at the annual meeting of the National Tax Association, Mr. Hallanan was elected a member of the executive committee of the association.

By virtue of his office as state tax commissioner Mr. Hallanan became prohibition commissioner of West Vir- ginia, and his record as a law enforcement officer and his splendid administration of the duties of the tax com- missioner's office have won for him universal trust and admiration.

Mr. Hallanan was a member of the West Virginia Elec- toral College in the presidential campaign of 1920. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and is an active participant in church affairs.

Mr. Hallanan married Miss Imogene Burns, of Hunt- ington, West Virginia, and in October, 1921, their marriage was blessed by a son, Walter S. Hallanan, Jr.

HERMAN MORRISSEY BROWN, who is giving most effective administration as superintendent of construction for the International Nickel Company at Huntington, was born at Liberty (now Bedford), Virginia, on the 25th of May, 1884. His father, Charles C. Brown, now a resident of Roanoke, Virginia, was born at Panther Springs, Tennessee, in 1852, and was there given his early education. After the close of the Civil war his parents moved to Prospect, Virginia, and later be became a locomotive fireman for the Norfolk & Western Railroad, with headquarters at Lynchburg, Vir- gina. He won advancement to the position of engineer, and is now trial engineer for the same railroad company, with residence at Roanoke, where he and his wife have main- tained their home since 1886 and where he is an active mem- ber of the Masonic fraternity. At Liberty, Virginia, was solemnized the marriage of Charles C. Brown and Miss Millie E. Morrissey, who was born at Bridgeport, Connecticut, in 1857, and of their children the subject of this review is the eldest; Albert is general foreman at the roundhouse of the Norfolk & Western Railroad at Bluefield, West Virginia ; James W. is assistant chief clerk to the superintendent of motive power for the same railroad at Roanoke, Virginia ; Charles C., Jr., is secretary to the superintendent of trans- portation of the same railroad; and Eleanor remains at the parental home.

Herman M. Brown attended St. Andrew's School at Roanoke, Virginia, until he was sixteen years old, and thereafter he worked in turn in a foundry and a blacksmith shop in that city. In 1901 be found employment as a laborer in the service of the Norfolk & Western Railroad, and later served an apprenticeship as a machinist in the shops of the company. At the completion of his apprentice- ship he took a position as a draftsman in the offices of this railroad company at Roanoke, and the opportunity present- ing, he entered the engineer of tests department, conducting a seven months test in one of their fast passenger trains operating between Richmond and Norfolk, Virginia. Leav- ing the services of the N. & W., he entered the services of the American Locomotive Company and later allied with the automobile industry, which at that time was just be- ginning. Later he entered the services of the C. & O. Rail- road Company at Richmond, Virginia as draughtsman, from which position he was promoted to roundhouse foreman at Huntington, and in October, 1907, he was made general fore- man at Thurmond, West Virginia, where he remained two years, the next year having been passed in a similar position at Handley. He was then transferred to Hinton, this state, and became master mechanic. In 1911 he was made master mechanic of the Cincinnati division, with headquarters at

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Covington, Kentucky, and in 1912 he returned to Huntington, where he served as shop superintendent for the same com- pany. During the war he was of service to the Government at Watervleit Arsenal. On January 1, 1921, he resigned his position and accepted his present office, that of superin- tendent of construction for the International Nickel Com- pany, a position that he is well qualified to fill due to pre- vious opportunities offered and which has been demonstrated in the beautiful plant that is now rapidly nearing com- pletion.

The general offices of the above company are at 67 Wall Street, New York City. He is at the present time superin- tending the construction of the company's new plant at Guyandotte, a suburb of Huntington. Here will be the company's only rolling mill, and the plant will be one of the largest and most important placed in operation by this corporation. A force of 400 men will be required to initiate operations, and with the normal expansion of the business this force will be materially increased. Mr. Brown is a stockholder in the Guyandotte Bank and is vice president and chief designer for the Fordette Engine Company of Huntington. He is a democrat. He and his wife are communicants of the Catholic Church, and he is a director of the Huntington Chamber of Commerce, and is affiliated with Roanoke Council No. 562, Knights of Columbus, at Roanoke, Virginia, and with Hinton (West Virginia) Lodge, No. 821, B. P. O. E. He maintains his permanent residence in Huntington, and is the owner of his modern home property, at 1411 Sixth Avenue.

On the 12th of June, 1908, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Brown and Miss Catherine Mae Furlong, at the Sacred Heart Church, Norfolk, Virginia. She is a daughter of James P. and Jane Furlong, the former of whom, a ship chandler by vocation, died at Norfolk, Virginia, and the latter now resides at Willoughby Beach, that state. Mr. and Mrs. Brown have three children, whose names and dates of birth are here recorded: Charles James, July, 1910; Mary Eleanor, May 25, 1914; and Herman M., Jr., January 25, 1920.

EDWIN FRANCIS HILL recently received a change of title and a new line of duties with the Chesapeake & Potomac Telephone Company of West Virginia, his present title being division information manager at Charleston. He is a veteran of the telephone industry and business in America, and while his duties now involve chiefly the public relation- ship of the telephone industry and its personnel, his ex- perience ranges over nearly every phase of work from the construction and equipment of lines to the management of large and important divisions of the Bell Telephone System of America.

Mr. Hill, who was born in Orange County, Virginia, Janu- ary 15, 1882, represents a family of many honorable dis- tinctions in Virginia Colonial and State history. His first English ancestor settled in Virginia early in the seventeenth century. The family produced a number of notable states- men and military leaders, including Col. Henry Hill of the Revolutionary war and Gen. Ambrose Powell Hill of the Civil war. Mr. Hill bears the name of his grandfather, Edwin Francis Hill, who married June 4, 1840, Lucy Scott Booton. Their son Rowland Flint Hill was born at the Hill ancestral home, Indian Trace, near Locust Dale, Madison County, Virginia, January 5, 1852. On January 5, 1881, at Mt. Zion Church in Oak Park, Madison County, Virginia, he married Etha Garnett, daughter of Jeremiah Cave and Sarah Elizabeth (Willis) Garnett, who were married at Burling- ton, Boone County, Kentucky, May 5, 1853. Jeremiah C. Garnett was a member of the Fifth Virginia Cavalry, Lo- max' Brigade, and was wounded at the battle of New- market in 1862. Albert G. Willis, an uncle of Etha Gar- nett, was a member of Moseby's raiders and was cap- tured and executed by the Union Army at Gaines' Cross Roads, Virginia, October 13, 1864, in retaliation for the death of a Union soldier supposed to have been killed by Moseby's men.

Edwin Francis Hill began work with the Southern Bell Telephone & Telegraph Company at Portsmouth, Virginia, February 10, 1900. His first service was digging holes for

the company's lines in that city. That was the beginning of a service which subsequently took him all over the South and involved the erection of telephone plants in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Georgia and Alabama, and the performance of nearly every kind of plant service. By virtue of more than twenty-one years of continuous service in the telephone industry Mr. Hill is a member of the Telephone Pioneers of America.

In December, 1900, following his early experience at Portsmouth, he was sent to Danville, Virginia, where he worked on the changing of the old system to the common battery system. In April, 1901, he went to Jacksonville, Florida, and was in service with the Bell system there dur- ing the fire of May 3, 1901. June 1st of that year he returned to Danville for a short time, and then worked at Winston-Salem and other points in North Carolina. January 1, 1902, he was transferred to Atlanta, Georgia, and remained in the plant construction service of the Southern Bell Telephone Company in that city and terri- tory until September 1, 1905. Then, after a little more than five years' experience in the telephone business, he was made district foreman of the American Telephone & Telegraph Company, with headquarters at Atlanta. The district then comprised the states of North and South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama and portions of Tennessee, Kentucky, Mississippi and Louisiana. He first came to Charleston, West Virginia, in November, 1906, again in the employ of the Southern Bell Telephone & Telegraph Company, superintending the placing of the underground system, changing the old magneto system of the city to the common battery system. The cut-over on this undertaking was made in December, 1906. At that time, it is interesting to note, Charleston had 1,168 telephones; it now has over 11,000.

Leaving Charleston June 22, 1906, Mr. Hill went to Nor- folk, Virginia, remaining there until December, 1907, and after another month or two at Lynchburg, Virginia, returned to Atlanta, where he continued on duty until the latter part of August, 1908. September 1, 1908, he was transferred to Norfolk as district plant chief in charge of the Norfolk District, comprising Norfolk, Portsmouth, Newport News, Hampton and Suffolk, reporting to the Richmond superin- tendent of plant.

June 30, 1912, Mr. Hill was transferred to Charleston as division plant superintendent of the Chesapeake & Poto- mac Telephone Company, a part of the Bell system. His jurisdiction embraced the entire State of West Virginia. Recently a new position was created, primarily involving the relations of the telephone business with the public, and the title of the official supervising this branch of the service is division information manager. Mr. Hill assumed this title and its duties on November 1, 1921, his jurisdiction comprising also the State of West Vrginia.

Among other mementoes of his long and interesting service Mr. Hill has two letters directed to him in Septem- ber, 1921, one from Brigadier General H. H. Bandholtz, and the other from Maj. General Charles T. Menoher, chief of the air service, both expressing the heartiest apprecia- tion and commending Mr. Hill for personally conducting a constant day and night telephone search for information that might lead to the location and discovery of the wrecked aeroplane and its crew in Nicholas County. Mr. Hill has received the Theodore N. Vail Medal for "Noteworthy Public Service" in connection with locating the airplane in September, 1921.

Mr. Hill is a charter member of Charleston Lodge No. 153 A. F. and A. M., a member of Charleston Chapter, Knights of Rose Croix No. 3, and Odel Squier Long Lodge of Perfection No. 3. Mr. Hill married Miss Marie Virginia Nicholson, of Fort Worth, Texas, at Portsmouth, Norfolk County, Virginia, December 7, 1910.

ABRAHAM E. HUDDLESTON, mayor of White Sulphur Springs, ex-member of the West Virginia State Legislature, and one of the most prominent men of Greenbrier County, was born in Alleghany County, Virginia, December 16, 1855. He is a son of David G. and Agnes (Hook) Huddles- ton. According to the family tradition two brothers bearing the name of Huddleston came to the American Colonies from

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England in 1734, one settling in New York State and the other at Tidewater, Virginia. It is from the latter that Mayor Huddleston descends. One of the name served in the American Revolution, a portion of the time being on the staff of General Washington. Practically all of the Virginian Huddlestons sympathized with the South in the war between the two sections of the country, and bore their part in the Confederate cause. The majority of the Huddlestons have followed farming. For the past century, with the exception of a few years, Bedford County, Virginia, has had a sheriff of the name of Huddleston. As a rule all of the name have been law-abiding, industrious and upright, a credit to the communities in which they have resided.

The grandfather of Mayor Huddleston was Abraham J. Huddleston, born in Bedford County, Virginia, in 1800. During the '20s of the last century he located in Alleghany County, and was there married to Leah Bowyer, and they had a large family. David G. Huddleston, one of their sons, and father of Mayor Huddleston, was a civil en- gineer and engaged in railroad construction work. Prior to the '60s he helped to build the Chesapeake & Ohio Rail- road, and he followed that line of endeavor very sucecss- fully until his death, which occurred September 7, 1878.

Abraham E. Huddleston is the eldest of five sons and five daughters, and was reared in his native county. After com- pleting a common-school education he began to be self- supporting as a telegraph operator, and worked as such and as a station agent for ten years. At the expiration of that period he branched out into a lumber and mercantile busi- ness at Callahan, Virginia, and in 1888 came to White Sul- phur Springs and established himself here in the same line, in which he has since continued.

Coming as he did to White Sulphur Springs when it was in its formative period, he has taken a determining part in all of its progress and was one of the prime movers in the organization of the Mountain Milling Company; built and installed the electric light plant ; and was one of the leaders in the establishment of the local bank. A strong democrat, he was elected mayor of White Sulphur Springs when it was first incorporated, and has also long served on the Board of Education. In 1912 he was elected to the State Assembly and re-elected in 1914, and while a member of that body served on some of its most important committees, and was very efficient as a legislator. In 1922 he was again elected mayor of his city, and it is a singular fact that he was nominated by every vote cast in the convention, and elected by every vote at the polls. Mayor Huddleston is a thirty- second degree Mason, A. A. S. R., and also a Knight- Templar of the York Rite. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and has served as a lay delegate to its general conference three different terms.

In 1877 Mr. Huddleston married Isabella Richardson, of Callahan, Virginia, and they became the parents of thirteen children, five of whom now survive. Mrs. Huddles- ton died January 4, 1918. Mr. Huddleston married for his second wife, Miss Elizabeth Peacock. Mr. Huddleston is a practical man who has reached his present leadership through his own efforts and because of his personality and ability to accomplish big things. The city of which he is chief executive owes practically everything to his energy, far- sightedness and good sense, and he has achieved marvels for it not only as an official, but as a private individual as well. His work of a public character has not been con- fined, however, te local issues, for as a member of the State Legislature he did much for the entire state, and a number of excellent laws are on the statute books because of his introduction or championship of them, or both. Personally he is one of the most popular of men with all classes, and in spite of the honors which have been bestowed upon him, is simple and unassuming, glad to lend a helping hand or to further any enterprise which in his judgment will bring about some improvement. There are not many men of his caliber in a community or even in a generation, and when they are found they are appreciated by the more intelligent, who know their value.

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History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 3, Part 179

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