History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 3, Part 18

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Mr. Meredith is one of the influential republicans of this section of the state. Since 1920 he has been a member of the Republican County Committee and prior to that for four years was a member of the Congressional Committee of the Second District. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church and is affiliated with Mannington Lodge No. 31, A. F. & A. M., Fairmont Chapter No. 9, R. A. M., West Virginia Consistory No. 1 of the Scottish Rite at Wheel- ing, Osiris Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Wheeling, and is a past grand of Smithfield Lodge No. 308, Independent Order of Odd Fellows. During the war he cast all his influence and much of his working time in behalf of the Government to promote the sale of Liberty Bonds and assist in all the other patriotic drives in his community.

At New Martinsville he married Miss Alice E. Hassig, daughter of Jacob and Rebecca (Smith) Hassig, both de- ceased. Her father was a farmer in Tyler and Wetzel counties. Mr. and Mrs. Meredith have three children: Catherine, born November 14, 1902, a graduate of the Smithfield High School and now a teacher in the public schools of that city; Doyle W., born March 17, 1904, a junior in the Smithfield High School; and Bruce, born September 17, 1905, a sophomore in high school.

WILLIAM CARLIN is one of the most substantial citizens of Wetzel County. Through his active career he has been a farmer, surveyor and civil engineer, identified with oil develop- ment, owns valuable oil royalties, and has widely extended farm and land interests both in West Virginia and elsewhere.

Mr. Carlin's home is at Smithfield, and he was born near the present site of that town March 27, 1857. His father Patrick Carlin, was born in County Mayo, Ireland, in 1818, and came to the United States about 1844. He had first landed in the West Indies. Among early experiences he helped build a levee on the Mississippi River, then came up the Ohio to Wheeling, was married at Steubenville, Ohio, and for three years was employed in turnpike construction in Wetzel and Marshall counties. He then bought land and settled down to the life of a farmer in Wetzel County, and died at his home near Smithfield in 1868. He was a demo- crat and a devout Catholic. His wife was Catherine Kil- coyne, who was born in County Mayo in 1829, and they had known each other in the old country. She was a girl in Ireland during the great famine of 1846, and she came to the United States about 1854. Her death occurred on the old homestead on Arches Fork in 1918. Of her children William was the oldest; Miss Mary lives on the old home farm on Arches Fork; Dora, living on her farm near Smithfield, is the widow of William Wyatt; Miss Sarah lives on the home farm; Patrick for many years has been a farmer and merchant at Arches Fork; John is an extensive farmer and cattle raiser near Smithfield.

William Carlin had some exceptionally good influences in his home, though his parents were far from being wealthy. Most of his education was derived from his mother's instruc- tion. Altogether he attended free school in Wetzel County only eight months. His apt intelligence, the reading of good books and home study have brought him an education far above the average. It is said that Mr. Carlin has the best and largest private library of any citizen in Wetzel County. During his youth he was brought face to face with the serious responsibilities of life, and until he was twenty-eight he re- mained on the home farm, assisting in earning a living for the family. He was only eleven years of age when his father died. Mr. Carlin was early led to the study of surveying, being very proficient in mathematics, and since the age of twenty-seven has done a great deal of work as a civil engineer in Wetzel County. He has surveyed and mapped large sections of the county. In 1894 he hecame interested in the oil fields of Wetzel and Doddridge counties, beginning as a leaser and has since come into the possession of some valuable oil royalties.

Mr. Carlin's home is the most modern residence in Smith- field, in the southeastern part of that town. It stands on the edge of his large farm of eight hundred acres. Besides operating this farm he owns four other farms in Wetzel County, the total acreage being fourteen hundred acres, and he also has a half section of land in Borden County, Texas, and owns an interest in a tract of 43,000 acres on the San Juan River near Vera Cruz, Old Mexico. He was a stock holder in the Empire Bank of Clarksburg.

Mr. Carlin is a democrat, a member of the Catholic Church and Clarksburg Council No. 872, Knights of Columbus. He was on practically all the committees for the sale of bonds and raising of funds for the war, and used his own name and credit to the limit in behalf of the Government.

In 1885, in Wetzel County, Mr. Carlin married Miss Margaret Ann Wyatt, daughter of Andrew J. and Elizabeth (Morris) Wyatt. Her father was a Wetzel County farmer. To Mr. and Mrs. Carlin were born seven children: Leo, who attended the Fairmont State Normal School and holds the degrees A. B. and LL. B. from West Virginia University, was during the war in charge of the Trades Department for South America at Washington, is now a professor in the law school of West Virginia University and has re-written one of the standard law text books. Miss Dora, the second child, and Miss Cora are graduates of the Young Ladies Seminary at Parkersburg and live at home. Katherine and William are also still in the home circle. Patrick, who finished his education in the Fairmont State Normal School, was in the draft during the war and is now owner of a public garage at Smithfield. The youngest child is John Carlin.

WILLIAM S. JOHNSON was re-elected state treasurer of West Virginia in 1920, and his second term in office is a compliment to his sound business ability and the efficiency with which he has administered the great responsibilities of handling the financial affairs of the state.

To his present honorable position Mr. Johnson has come through a career that presents few extraordinary instances but has been a steady struggle on the part of a normally ambitious, self reliant and thoroughly honest character. He was born in Fayette County, where he still resides, in 1871, son of Miles and Caroline (Woodrum) Johnson. His early life was spent on a farm. As a boy he went to live with his grandparents. His grandfather, Rev. William Johnson, was a farmer and local Methodist minister, a wise, good man of splendid natural attainments, who afforded the very best of influences for the developing character of his grand- son. The latter lived in the country and worked on the farm, attended school only two months each year, and the sum total of his school advantages was extremely limited. He had an ambition to teach, and by attending local teach- ers' institutes passed the required examination and was granted a first grade certificate. Mr. Johnson taught in Fayette County for ahout ten years. In 1902 he was elected county superintendent of schools of Fayette County, hold- ing that office four years.

While still county superintendent he was elected in 1904 a member of the State Senate from Fayette County. He

W& Johnson

HISTORY OF WEST VIRGINIA

s re-elected in 1908, and sat in the upper branch of the gislature from Fayette County for eight years.

Mr. Johnson was nominated by the republican party for tte treasurer in 1916, and in 1920 had no opposition for nomination and began his second term March 5, 1921. is doubtful if any preceding state treasurer has made as e a record for efficiency and faithful and expeditious ndling of the affairs of this office as Mr. Johnson. He s insisted from the first that the business of the office ould be conducted on the principles demanded by any pri- te corporation. His office force is organized and its work ried out with this idea steadfastly in view. He has in- sed his personal ideas into the office personnel, and has o introduced equipment and machinery for systematizing d expediting his work and saving labor. In the treas- er's office are such labor saving machines as a signagraph : signing checks, bookkeeping and posting machines, add- ; machines, mimeograph machines, all of the electrically erated type, and a machine for cancelling state bonds and ipons.

The disbursements of the state treasurer's office run m $15,000,000 to $20,000,000 annually. The best evi- nce of business-like administration can be found in the ord that not a cent has been lost to the state through office and every cent handled can be accounted for. Mr. anson while state treasurer has been especially well known cause of his aggressive fight against the antiquated de- sitory law of West Virginia, a law copied from old Vir- ia more than half a century ago. The system has re- ined unchanged, an incubus on the efficient and business- e handling of state finances, and only the exceeding care- ness of a state treasurer like Mr. Johnson has avoided ivy losses that are inseparable from the risks involved the law itself, in spite of all vigilance exercised by offi- Is. Mr. Johnson while state treasurer has studied and lected data from practically every state in the Union I also from private corporations illustrating the best ans of handling finances, and out of this wide study and perience he has prepared bills for proposed laws, thus cing the responsibility for the present system squarely to the Legislature.

At the annual convention of the State Auditors and easurers Association of the United States held in At- tic City in October, 1921, Mr. Johnson was elected sec- 1 vice president. He was also honored by being invited deliver an address on the subject "How and by Whom ould Public Funds Be Deposited."

Mr. Johnson is a member of the Methodist Church, and is liated with the Knights of Pythias, Elks and Moose. He rried Miss Ernie Young, who was born and reared in arleston. Mr. Johnson has his official residence at arleston, but his home is at Mount Hope in Fayette unty.

ARTHUR L. CHAMBERS was born and reared in Western ansylvania, as a youth went into the oil districts as a mper and for a quarter of a century has been one of the ponsible men in the oil production activities of Wetzel unty, West Virginia. He resides and has his business dquarters at Smithfield and is superintendent of the ith Penn Oil Company.

Mr. Chambers was born at Butler, Pennsylvania, June 28, 66. His father, James H. Chambers, was born at Mill- e, New Jersey, in 1809, was reared there, learned the trade blacksmith, and followed that occupation all his active life. was married at Orbisonia, Pennsylvania, and in 1848 left re and removed to Butler, where he lived until his death 1881. He was a republican and a member of the Metho- Episcopal Church. James H. Chambers married Susanna ffer, who was born in Eastern Pennsylvania in 1815 and d at Butler in 1881. A brief record of their children is as ows: John, a painter by trade who died at Allegheny, insylvania, aged sixty-two; Mary, who died at Greenville, insylvania, aged sixty-eight, wife of Perry Dehart, a ner who also died there; Samuel, a farmer who died at n City, Pennsylvania, aged sixty-three; Florence, wife of rge W. Campbell, an oil well worker at Baldwin, Penn- rania; Jennie, of Van Buren, Indiana, widow of Andrew

J. Campbell, who was a worker in the oil fields of that district; Charles, a farmer who died at Parkers Landing, Pennsylvania, at the age of thirty; Sarah, of Clarion, Pennsylvania, widow of Curtis W. Elder, a farmer.

Arthur L. Chambers, eighth and youngest of this family, acquired a public school education at Butler and also took an academic course in Grove City College of that state. He left college at the age of twenty and forthwith entered the Kossuth oil field of Clarion County as a pumper. He was there two years, then worked in a similar capacity in the Connoquessing field of Butler County, and was in that dis- trict until he came to Smithfield in January, 1897. The first two years he was a pumper for the South Penn Oil Company, then for three years field foreman, and since then has had the responsibilities of superintendent of the Wetzel District, in charge of all the practical operations involved in the production and lifting of oil to the surface. His offices are on Smith Avenue, and he has under his supervision eighty employes and has had as high as three hundred men working under him.

Mr. Chambers is a republican and a member of the Epis- copal Church. Fraternally he is affiliated with Wetzel Lodge No. 39, F. & A. M., at New Martinsville, Fairmont Chapter No. 9, R. A. M., Fairmont Commandery No. 6, K. T., West Virginia Consistory No. 1 of the Scottish Rite at Wheeling, Osiris Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Wheeling, and is a past chancellor of White Lily Lodge No. 94, Knights of Pythias. He is a director in the Bank of Jacksonburg. His only living son was in the army during the war, and Mr. Chambers did more than his share of home work, especially in the Red Cross relief activities. He is deeply interested in educational affairs, and for six years was president of the Board of Education of Grant District, and during that time built new schools at Pine Grove, Jacksonburg, Mobley and Smithfield.

June 20, 1891, at Youngstown, Ohio, Mr. Chambers mar- ried Miss Cora Dillaman, daughter of George W. and Phoebe (Byers) Dillaman, now residents of Meadville, Crawford County, Pennsylvania, where her father is a farmer. The two children born to Mr. and Mrs. Chambers were Ersie Ray, who died at the age of four months and fourteen days, and Charles Roland.

Charles Roland Chambers was born April 4, 1895, and joined the National Guard at Fairmont before America entered the war with Germany. He was mustered into active service in April, 1918, was commissioned a second lieutenant, was in training at Hattiesburg, Mississippi, and went overseas, reaching France October 10, 1918. He was a casual officer stationed at Le Mons, and returned March 29, 1919. For two weeks he was held in hospital at Hoboken as a diphtheria carrier, and for four months was in the Walter Reed Hospital at Washington before his discharge. He is is now a resident of Cameron, West Virginia, being a book- keeper for the South Penn Oil Company.

J. FRIEND ALLEY is cashier of the Bank of Pine Grove, was in early life a teacher, and is prominently and widely known in the citizenship of Wetzel County, which he also represented a term in the State Legislature.

Mr. Alley was born at Pine Grove March 17, 1891, and at the age of thirty has achieved a substantial position in the affairs of that community. His great-grandfather, Jack Alley was the pioneer of the family in West Virginia. He was a minister of the Baptist Church and settled in Marshall County from Pennsylvania. The grandfather, Thomas H. Alley, was born in Marshall County in 1826, and the greater part of his life was spent near Pine Grove in Wetzel County, where he died in 1908, at the age of eighty-two. He married Mary Steele, a native of Greene County, Pennsylvania, who died at Pine Grove. Isaac B. Alley, father of the Pine Grove banker, is a resident of that community. He was born in Marshall County in 1859, and was a small boy when his parents moved to Pine Grove, where he was reared and mar- ried and where he has been known as a substantial farmer. He is now practically retired. He has served on the Town Council of Pine Grove, is a democrat, a member of the Meth- odist Church and Sylvan Lodge No. 130, Knights of Pythias. He married Louisa Headley, who was born in Wetzel County in 1864 and died at Pine Grove in 1894. The four children

HISTORY OF WEST VIRGINIA

of their marriage were: Miss Jessie, at home with her father; Joe, a stationary engineer living at Pine Grove; J. Friend; and Mary Jane, wife of George W. Hawkins, a stationary engineer at Pine Grove.

J. Friend Alley was educated in the public schools of Pine Grove, and in 1915 graduated from the Elliott Commercial School of Wheeling. In the meantime, at the age of nineteen, he began teaching, for two years his work was in the rural schools, and for one year he was a teacher in the grade school of Pine Grove. After finishing his commercial college course in the fall of 1915 he entered the Bank of Pine Grove as bookkeeper. In November, 1916, he was elected a mem- ber of the House of Delegates from Wetzel County, and dur- ing the session of 1917 he was a member of the committees on prohibition and temperance, education, county, districts and municipal corporations, private corporations and joint stock companies, and agriculture. In December, 1916, Mr. Alley resigned from the bank and for a short time was bookkeeper for the South Penn Oil Company, but in 1917 returned to the Bank of Pine Grove as cashier, and has been to a large degree the responsible officer of the bank ever since.

The Bank of Pine Grove was established under a state charter in 1902. It was a very prosperous institution, the capital stock being $25,000.00, surplus and profits $6,000.00, and deposits averaging $200,000.00. The personnel of the officers are: H. A. Jolliffe, president; F. F. Morgan, vice president; J. Friend Alley, cashier; while the other directors are Joe Alley, H. H. Roome, L. M. Billingsley, B. L. Morgan, P. J. Garvey, J. L. Simpson, S. J. Dulaney, all of Pine Grove, and J. U. Jolliffe, of Weston.

As a bank official Mr. Alley was very active in promoting the filling of the quota of his community for patriotic pur- poses during the war. He spent much of his time in selling Liberty Bonds and helping the Red Cross drives. He is a democrat, a Methodist, and is affiliated with Wetzel Lodge No. 39 A. F. and A. M., Sylvan Lodge No. 130, Knights of Pythias, of which he is past chancellor, and Pine Grove Lodge No. 460, Independent Order of Odd Fellows.

June 25, 1919, at Pine Grove, he married Miss Alice Haw- kins, daughter of Ralph R. and Sarah (Daugherty) Hawkins, the latter now deceased, and the former a resident of Pine Grove. He is a retired oil well pumper and now has a pen- sion from the company that employed him many years. Mrs. Alley also finished her education in the Elliott Com- mercial College at Wheeling. They have two children, Norman Gregory, born April 17, 1920, and Jack Roger, born February 1, 1922.

CHARLES W. SINNETT is giving an excellent administration as postmaster of Auburn, Ritchie County, and is one of the well known and distinctively popular citizens of his native county, his birth having occurred at Washburn, this county, June 27, 1873. In Ritchie County were also born his par- ents, John P. and Helen V. (Stanley) Sinnett. The father was here born in the year 1847,where he was reared on a farm, and though he was a mere boy at the time of the outbreak of the Civil war, his youthful loyalty to the cause of the Union prompted him to enlist in the Tenth Virginia Infantry, with which he continued in service until the close of the war. After his return home he continued his active alliance with farm enterprise until he turned his attention to lumbering operations as the owner of a sawmill. With this line of business he continued his associations for many years prior to his death. He and his wife were zealous members of the Indian Creek Baptist Church, he was a stalwart republican, and was a valued and appreciative member of the Grand Army of the Republic. Of the six children Charles W., of this review, is the eldest; Alberta is deceased; Mary E. is the wife of Floyd Jones; Eliza May is the wife of O. H. Waller; Clarence M., an oil-well driller by occupation, resides at Harrisville, judicial center of Ritchie County; and Clinton L. resides at Burnt House, this county, he having been a member of the United States Navy and having been in the aviation service of the nation in the period of the World war.

Charles W. Sinnett remained on the home farm until he was nineteen years old, and that he had profited by the advantages of the public schools is evidenced by the effective service which he gave as a teacher in the rural schools for

four terms. He became identified with the operation of saw mill, and later was a partner in the operating of a flo mill also at Auburn, besides which he acquired skill a worked at the carpenter's trade. In 1914, after civil-servi examination, he was appointed postmaster at Auburn, which village he has maintained his residence since 189 and his administration has fully justified his appointme to this office. He owns the building in which the Post Offi is established, and has given the same a modern equipmer so that the service facilities are of the best. He also ow and occupies one of the attractive homes of the villa Mr. Sinnett is a staunch republican, and in a fraternal w is a past chancellor of Auburn Lodge No. 47, Knights Pythias, which he represented in the Grand Lodge of t state in 1909-10. His wife is an active member of t Methodist Episcopal Church.

In 1905 Mr. Sinnett married Miss Laura J. Watson, a of this union six children have been born, all of whom living except the youngest. The names and respective birt dates of the children are here recorded: Lois, January 1 1906; Lora, April 11, 1908; Helen, October 27, 1910; Jo Willard, January 28, 1912; Harmon E., September 11, 191 and May, who was born January 8, 1921, and died Janua 12, 1921.

JOHN L. RYMER is one of the leading merchants of t thriving village of Auburn, Ritchie County, where he is al vice president of the Auburn Exchange Bank, one of t substantial and well ordered financial institutions of t county. He was born in Gilmer County, this state, Decemb 17, 1869, and is a son of W. W. and Phoebe J. (Patto Rymer, the former of whom was born in Highland Count Virginia, in 1840, and the latter of whom was born in wh is now Gilmer County, West Virginia, in 1850. The fath was reared and educated in what is now West Virginia, parents having first settled in Lewis County and later havi removed to Gilmer County, where he was reared to maturit After his marriage W. W. Rymer settled on a farm ne Auburn, Ritchie County, and he is now one of the venersl and honored citizens of Gilmer County. He has been a m of productive industry and has been loyal to all civic dut and responsibilities, his political faith being that of t democratic party. Of the six children the subject of tl review is the eldest; N. E. is serving, in 1921, as county cle of Gilmer County; Miss Mary S. remains at the parent home; Howard E. is deceased; Dosia L. is the wife of Albe West, of Glenville, Gilmer County; and William I. has acti management of the home farm of his parents.

While the activities of the old homestead farm ma demands upon much of the time and attention of John Rymer in the period of his boyhood and early youth, he d not fail to profit also by the advantages offered in the pub schools, besides which he later took a course in the Mounta State Business College at Parkersburg. In his independe career Mr. Rymer has continued his appreciative allian with farm industry, and is now the owner of a well improv farm of seventy-five acres near Auburn. He has conduct a well equipped general merchandise store at Auburn sin the year 1910, and is one of the progressive merchants & loyal and liberal citizens of this village. He is a stan democrat, and is past chancellor of Auburn Lodge No. 4 Knights of Pythias, his wife being a member of the Pythi Sisters and also an active member of the Methodist Episco] Church.

In 1914 Mr. Rymer wedded Miss Dell S. Sommerville, Auburn, she being a native of Ritchie County. Mrs. Ryn graduated from the Mountain State Business College, s in 1912-13 she served with marked ability as cashier of + Auburn Exchange Bank, she having been at that time 1 only woman bank cashier in West Virginia. Mr. and M Rymer have no children.

HON. GEORGE WILLIAM MCCAULEY. One of the leadi, promulgators of corporation law of Eastern West Virgi: is George William McCauley, of Moorefield, the great part of whose career has been passed in Hardy Coun, Mr. McCauley is not only prominent in the ranks of his p fession, but is likewise active and influential in the ran of the democratic party and at various times has b

G. H. M Cauley

HISTORY OF WEST VIRGINIA

chosen the incumbent of public offices, in which he has es- tablished an excellent record for faithful and capable serv- ice.

Mr. MeCauley was born November 30, 1868, at Sedan, Hampshire County, the family moving when he was one year old to Hanging Rock (now MeCauley Post Office), Hampshire County, West Virginia. He is a son of Elias and Susan (Baker) MeCauley. His paternal grandfather, Addison McCauley, was a resident of Hampshire County for many years, and, it is believed, devoted himself uninter- ruptedly to agricultural operations in the vicinity of North River Mills. He married a Miss Millslagle, and among their children were: Lemuel, George and Elias. Elias MeCauley was born near North River Mills, Hampshire County, April 19, 1821, and secured a rural school education that en- abled him to teach school prior to the outbreak of the war between the states. During that struggle be had a brief connection with a Confederate militia regiment, and the fact that he took no greater part in the war is probably due to his operation of a mill, at Sedan, the continuance of which was deemed desirable by the military chiefs. Some time after the war Mr. McCauley came to Hardy County and established the family home at what was then known as Hanging Rock, but which is now known as MeCauley Post Office, named in his honor. He was first engaged in the milling business, following which he established a general merchandise store and gradually assumed other business connections, of growing importance, which he maintained for a number of years. In the evening of life he passed these responsibilities on to other shoulders, and died Au- gust 10, 1908, at MeCauley. He was politically a demo- crat, with strong and well-defined convictions, but did not seek political favors, and his only public positions were those of postmaster, justice of the peace and member of the board of education. In his later years he united with the Presbyterian Church. He had no connection with fra- ternal orders. Mr. McCauley married Miss Susan Baker, who was born on Baker's Run, Hardy County, May 10, 1830, a daughter of Abraham and Mary Ann (Wise) Baker. Mrs. McCauley passed away at the home of the family at Mc- Cauley February 19, 1912. Those of their children to grow to maturity were as follows: Aaron Baker, whose life was spent at McCauley as a teacher, and who died at the home of his uncle, Aaron Baker, in Grant County, in 1897; Rebecca, who married John B. Russell and died September 6, 1906, at MeCauley; Isabel Lee, who became the wife of Dorsey F. Brill and resides at Richwood, West Virginia; George William, of this review; and Sallie C., who mar- ried Benjamin B. Baughman and died at MeCauley, Feb- ruary 9, 1917.

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History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 3, Part 18

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