History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 3, Part 180

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DAVID AUSTIN JAYNE was born March 4, 1878, in Eaton Township, Wyoming County, Pennsylvania, son of David

and Hannah (Kishaugh) Jayne. He attended county school. spent the early part of his life on the farm, and graduated from the commercial department of Keystone Academy. Factoryville, Pennsylvania, in June 1898, and from the East Stroudsburg State Normal School in June, 1901. He taught country school and commercial schools at Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania, Elyria, Ohio, and Charleston, West Virginia.

Mr. Jayne began the practice of public accounting in 1905, and was commissioned as a certified public accountant by the State of West Virginia in 1911. Ile is a member of the American Institute of Accountants, American Society of Certified Public Accountants and Association of Certified Public Accountants of West Virginia.

He married Anna Evelyn Carey, of Wyoming County, Pennsylvania, in 1905, who died soon after their marriage. In 1907 he married Cecelia MacCutcheon, of Erie, Pennsyl- vania. He is a thirty-second degree Mason, Shriner and Elk.

Mr. Jane was appointed on the State Board for the Ex- amination of Public Accountants by Gov. H. D. Hatfield, and re-appointed in 1922 by Gov. Ephriam F. Morgan.

HOWARD LEE ROBEY, cashier of the Cabell County Bank of Huntington, West Virginia, who has devoted the greater part of a quarter of a century to banking, possesses all the teclinical, detailed knowledge of bank operations, and has proved equally able in the field of executive management.

Mr. Robey was born in Roane County, West Virginia, December 30, 1876. His paternal ancestors were English and came to Maryland at the time of Lord Baltimore. His grandfather, Randolph Robey, born May 8, 1907, was a farmer in Marion and Roaue connties, and he died while serving as a soldier in the Mexican war. His wife was Louisa Hardy, who was born March 13, 1806, and died in Roane County, West Virginia in 1887. She reared a family of four sons and four daughters, the only survivor being John Nelson Robey.

Jolin Nelson Robey was born in Marion County, June 23, 1841, and in 1844 his parents moved to Roane County, where he was reared and where he became an extensive farmer. As a young man he enlisted in the Coufederate Army, in the Thirty-seventh Virginia Infantry, and served until the end of that conflict. While he lives with his son Hamond H. in Spencer, West Virginia, he still owns and gives more or less active supervision to his farm five miles west of that town. While buying his farm and rearing his children he supplemented his income by teaching in some of the old-time log-cabin schoolhouses of that period. He also held the office of justice of the peace. A large gas pump- ing station is located on his farm. He enjoys prosperity after several years of economic struggle to provide for his family. He is a democrat, and for forty-five years has been a member of Moriah Lodge No. 38, A. F. and A. M., Spencer, West Virginia.

John Nelson Robey married America Howell, who was born in Roane County, January 23, 1853, and died June 12, 1883. Five children were born to them: Lillian M., born July 10, 1873, died July 28, 1919; Howard Lee; Fleet M., born November 21, 1878, assistant cashier of the Cabell County Bank of Huntington, West Virginia; Hamond H., born February 24, 1881, proprietor of a chain of moving picture theatres at Spencer, West Virginia, where he lives, and at Ravenswood and St. Marys, West Virginia; and Olive J., born February 7, 1883, wife of J. Mell Schwender, cashier of the First National Bank of South Charleston, West Virginia.

Howard Lee Robey acquired a rural school education in Roane County. At that time the terms of rural schools were for four months each year. These he attended regular- ly, and during the remainder of the year worked on the farmı, continuing his studies under his father, who had formerly been a school teacher. At the age of fifteen he was awarded a teachers certificate, and taught school for four successive terms. At the age of nineteen he secured a po- sition as bookkeeper in the Bank of Spencer, at Spencer, West Virginia, and in less than two years was made cashier,

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at that time being the youngest bank cashier in West Virginia.

He remained with the Bank of Spencer until 1901, when he went to Point Pleasant, West Virginia and became a bookkeeper in the Merchants National Bank. A year later he returned to Roane County and organized the Bank of Recdy at Reedy, West Virginia, and served as cashier until the fall of the same year, when he received the nomination by the democratic party in a three cornered fight for the office of clerk of the County Court of Roane County. He was defeated in the republican landslide of that year, but had the satisfaction of leading his ticket by over two hundred votes.

Mr. Robey then returned to the Merchants National Bank at Point Pleasant, West Virginia, and in addition to his services with the bank, he was assistant secretary to two building and loan associations. In 1906 he joined with other Point Pleasant business men and associates in the organization of the Point Pleasant Trust Company. He became secretary-treasurer of the company, and at the same time held the office of treasurer of the Town of Point Pleasant. These duties engaged him until 1910, when, on acount of failing health, he concluded to farm for awhile and moved to his wife's farm at Maggie, West Virginia, where he remained for two years. Another year he sold life insurance, and then he located at Matewan, West Virginia, where he organized the Matewan National Bank, which institution was very successful from its be- ginning under the management of Mr. Robey as cashier.

Mr. Robey had a desire to locate in Huntington, West Virginia, and when he read in the papers that the Central Banking Company had met with some difficulty in 1916 he got in communication with those interested, and after he had made careful investigation of its affairs he con- cluded he could "right the ship," and in a very short time arrangements were made for him to take charge of the institution. The name of the bank was changed to the Cabell County Bank on September 19, 1916, and its success is reflected in the rapid growth the bank has made since his connection with it, its resources having already passed the half million mark, and its continued growth is assured. The officers of the bank are: S. H. Bowman, president; M. Biederman, vice president; H. L. Robey, cashier; Kathryn L. Robey, his wife, assistant cashier; and F. M. Robey, his brother, assistant cashier. The bank has a capital stock of $25,000; surplus of $5,000, and deposits of over $400,000. Those familiar with the history of this institution give the chief credit for its steadily growing prosperity to Mr. Robey and Mrs. Robey. The bank is located at the corner of Washington Avenue and Fourteenth Street. It has adopted the following slogan, "A good bank in a good part of the City."

Mr. Robey is a past master of Minturn Lodge No. 19, A. F. and A. M., at Point Pleasant, West Virginia; is past recorder of Point Pleasant Chapter No. 7, R. A. M., was the first recorder of Franklin Commandery No. 17, Knights Templar, at Point Pleasant, and he still continues his mem- bership with the above bodies. He is also a member of Beni-Kedem Temple, Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, at Charleston, West Virginia, and of Huntington Lodge of Perfection No. 4 of the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry.

Mr. Robey married at Point Pleasant, West Virginia, on December 7, 1907, Kathryn Long, daughter of Morgan Long and Mary Frances (Hogg) Long, two of the oldest and most distinguished families of Southern West Virginia.

Mrs. Robey was educated by private teachers, and as noted above, is assistant cashier of the Cabell County Bank. She acquired her first experience in banking in the Matewan National Bank of Matewan, West Virginia, having entered the bank with Mr. Robey the day it opened for business, and she was soon promoted to the office of assistant cashier.

JOSEPH HARVEY LONG, who has recently retired from the office of postmaster of the City of Huntington, has long been numbered among the representative members of the newspaper fraternity in West Virginia, and since 1895 has been editor and publisher of the Huntington Advertiser,

which he has made one of the strong and influential pape of the state.

Mr. Long was born in Lebanon County, Pennsylvani May 21, 1863, and is a son of Edward C. and Sarah (Ro buck) Long. The house in which he was born figured al: as the birthplace of his father and his paternal grandfathe and the ancient building was erected over flowing spring and in such a way as to constitute a sort of block house - fort to afford protection against the Indians, the while tl springs supplied water which could not be ent off in ca: of siege by hostile Indians. Edward C. Long became traveling salesman for a manufacturing and wholesalin house in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to which city he remove with his family in 1873. There the future newspaper ma Joseph H. Long, was reared to adult age and received th advantages of the public schools. As a boy Mr. Long can into possession of a small printing outfit, which he utilize in the printing of visiting cards. This amateur enterpris doubtless had direct influence in leading to his continuot alliance with the "art preservative of all arts." He gradi ally expanded his juvenile printing enterprise to include measure of commercial work, and he continued to increas his working knowledge of the mystic details of the printin trade and business. In April, 1879, Mr. Long went t Lagrange, Ohio, a town later known as Brilliant, and ther invested all his capital in the Novelty Glass Company Financial disaster robbed him of all he had invested, an he then resumed his alliance with the printing business b taking employment as a compositor in the office of the Ohi Press at Steubenville. Within a short time thereafter h became a general utility man on the Wheeling Leader, whic was then a Sunday paper, at Wheeling, West Virginia. H thus continued until about the year 1882. In the meanwhil Dana Hubbard, a brother of W. P. Hubbard, who at tha time was publisher of the Wheeling Leader, had becom editor of the Erie Dispatch at Erie, Pennsylvania, and Mi Long joined the staff of this Pennsylvania paper. In th autumn of 1884 he found employment with the Osweg. Palladium, at Oswego, New York, but in September of th following year he returned to Pittsburgh and took : position in the office of the Wheeling Register, and later be came interested in the Wheeling News. In the autumn 0: 1893 Mr. Long came from that West Virginia city to Hunt ington, and here purchased the plant and business of the Herald, then in a dilapidated and run-down condition. H. soon developed this into a well regulated and prosperous newspaper property, and made it so influential as a republi can paper that within a year, mainly through its medium the republican party elected all officers in Cabell County with the exception of county clerk, In 1895 Mr. Long sold the Herald property and purchased the Huntington Advertiser of which he has since continued the editor and publisher and which he has made a power in politics throughout the state. In May, 1916, Mr. Long was commissioned post- master of Huntington, and after giving an effective admin- istration of five years and one month he resigned, and has since given his exclusive attention to his newspaper busi. ness. The history of the Huntington Advertiser and the record of the local career of Mr. Long are so closely linked and interwoven as to be practically inseparable, and both the man and the paper have wielded large influence in local affairs. The Advertiser had its inception at Buffalo, West Virginia, and about the year 1870 its owner, Dr. O. G. Chase, removed the plant and business to Guyandotte, Cabell County. When the present fine industrial city of Hunting- ton was born, Dr. Chase removed his plant to the new town, and after a time he was succeeded in the ownership by Major E. A. Bennett. In September, 1885, C. L. Thompson, of Hinton, and W. O. Wiatt purchased the property and con- tinued the publication of the Advertiser as a weekly paper. On September 2, 1889, the Daily Advertiser was founded and published in conjunction with the weekly of the same name. At this time Mr. Wiatt retired from the firm, and the publications were continued by Mr. Thompson, who later was succeeded by Thomas E. Hodges, a former prin- cipal of Marshall College, and George F. Donnella, a local attorney, each of whom had previously acquired an interest

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n the property. J. Hoffman Edwards, of Weston, became he next owner, he having been succeeded by George Sum- ners and the latter by Major G. Downtain and his son, William S. Up to this time the two papers had maintained , somewhat precarious existence, but a new vigor was instilled when J. H. Long purchased the properties, July 20, 1895, le having since continued the directing spirit of the now plendid newspaper enterprise. Of those formerly identified with the Advertiser, Dr. Chase Major Bennett, Messrs. Thompson, Hodges and Donnella, and Major Downtain are ll deceased; Mr. Wiatt is treasurer of Hagen, Rateliff & Company, wholesale grocers at Huntington; Mr. Edwards massed a fortune in oil production and now resides at Weston, this state; Mr. Summers is a widely known news- aper correspondent, with headquarters at Washington, District of Columbia.

Under the effective control and management of Mr. Long, he Huntington Advertiser has become one of the valuable newspaper properties in West Virginia. Its mechanical quipment includes a sixteen-page Duplex press, with color ttachment; nine linotype machines, of which five have multiple magazines; one monotype and one Ludlow type- etting machine. It is virtually a non-distributing plant nd is wholly independent of the type trust. Equipped

hroughout with new steel furniture, the establishment is ne of the most modern and complete newspaper and print- og plants in the state, and the plan of Mr. Long is to astall, in the near future, the plant in a model new build- ng to be erected for the purpose at the corner of Tentlı Street and Fifth Avenue.

Mr. Long is a leader in the councils and campaign activi- ies of the democratic party in West Virginia, and in the Lasonic fraternity he has completed the circle of each the Tork and Scottish Rites, in the latter of which he has re- eived the thirty-second degree.

In 1884 Mr. Long was united in marriage to Miss Cora I. Thompson, of Steubenville, Ohio, and they have three ons, Luther T., Paul Walker and Edward H., all of whom re associated with the Huntington Advertiser. Paul W. nd Edward H. were in the nation's service in the World war period. Luther T., being over thirty years old and harried, was not called. Paul W., a graduate of Cornell University, completed a course in the air service of the United States Navy at Seattle, Washington, and was later tationed at San Diego, California. Edward H. was a tudent in Cornell University at the time when the United tates became involved in the war, and was in the Student irmy Training Corps at Washington and Lee, Lexington, Virginia, when the armistice was signed.

MILTON STANLEY HODGES, city attorney of Franklin, is ortunate in the choice of his profession, for its employ- ients are congenial to him and he has followed them with nflagging interest and zest. To him the work of the law not drudgery, but the source of keen, intellectual pleasure, nd through it he has been able to render a much-appre- iated service to his community. Nature equipped bim enerously for the profession, and he has supplemented her ifts by the conduct of his life. Possessing as he does a road, clear and vigorous mind, everything he undertakes is arried out in an orderly and logical manner, and some of he large interests of this locality recognizing this, and bis nherent honesty, are glad to secure his services in their ehalf.

Mr. Hodges was born at Piedmont, Mineral County, West irginia, September 28, 1876, and is a son of Milton Hodges, a railroad engineer, in the service of the Balti- more & Ohio Railroad for thirty years. Milton Hodges a on of Joseph and Edith (Bennett) Hodges was born in Washington County, Maryland, in 1840, and spent his early fe on a farm. When war broke out between the two ections of the country he enlisted in the Union Army, and elonged to Company K, Third Maryland Infantry. Follow- ig his honorable discharge at the close of the war, he went to railroad work, and continued in it until his useful life as terminated in an accident while passenger engineer for is road, April 26, 1892. He is buried at Keyser, West Vir- inia.

Milton Hodges married at Cumberland, Maryland, Mrs. Martha Ellen Sharf, who was the only child of Levi and Ellen (Paxton) Curtis, and who died at Keyser in 1909, where she had lived since 1877. She had one child by her first marriage, who is now Mrs. J. W. P. Welch, of Cumber- land, Maryland. Mr. and Mrs. Milton Hodges had the fol- lowing children: William L. who died at Keyser, West Vir- ginia in 1914, unmarried; Mrs. Oscar Spotts, who lives at Keyser; Mrs. A. M. Pugh, who is also a resident of Keyser; Charles R., who lives at Keyser; A. H., who lives at Keyser; Milton Stanley, whose name heads this review; Mrs. Edward Hall, who lives at Crafton, Pennsylvania; Mrs. B. E. Wells and Harry C., who are residents of Keyser, and Roy, who died at Keyser in 1895.

When he was but three months old, Milton Stanley Hodges parents removed to Keyser, and here he was reared and at- tended school graduating from the high-school course in 1892. In 1899 he was graduated from the Ohio Wesleyan University with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. His legal training was secured in the law department of the Uni- versity of West Virginia, at Morgantown, from which he was graduated in 1901 with the degree of Bachelor of Laws.

Admitted to practice at the bar of his native state, Mr. Hodges established himself in a general practice at Keyser, but after a year left that city for Franklin, and since then has continued to be identified with this community. Here he became a member of the law firm of Forman and Hodges, his partner being Senator L. J. Forman of Petersburg. This firm, now twenty years old, still exists, and is the oldest law firm in Pendleton County. Mr. Hodges is identified with the courts in general practice. In 1904 and again in 1920 he was the candidate of the republican party for the office of county prosecutor, but his party is so decidedly in the minority in this region that there was no possibility of election. His first vote was cast for Governor Bushnell in Ohio in 1898, while a student of the Ohio Wesleyan University; his first presidential vote was cast for William McKinley in 1900, and he has continued his affiliations with the republican party ever since, being very active in organization work. Until 1916 he was chair- man of the Pendleton County Republican Central Com- mittee, and since then has been a member of the party committee of the Second Congressional District, and on the state committee by proxy at times. Although fre- quently urged to make the race for state senatorship, he has declined to do so. His presence as a delegate to the state conventions of his party has been frequent and regular, and he was secretary of the last one held at Huntington. He was a member of the famous 1904 republi- can convention held at Wheeling, West Virginia, and the one in 1912, held at Huntington, in which the progressive wing of the party attempted to depose the regular re- publican committee. In 1901 Mr. Hodges was appointed assistant clerk of the House of Delegates, and served as such in the sessions of 1903 and 1905, and as chief assistant in 1907. In 1909 he was secretary to the president of the Senate; assistant clerk of the House in 1913, and was elected clerk of that body in 1921.

During the Spanish-American war, Mr. Hodges volunteered as a member of Company K, Fourth Ohio Volunteer In- fantry, while he was a student in the Ohio Wesleyan University. The company mobilized at Camp Bushnell, Columbus, Ohio, was ordered to Chickamauga Park, Ten- nessee, and went from there into active service in Porto Rico. The regiment sailed from Newport News in August, 1898, on the auxiliary cruiser Saint Paul in the command of Captain Chadwick, who commanded the ill-fated Maine at the time it was blown up in Havana Harbor. The troops landed at Arroyo, Porto Rico, and the day following ad- vanced and captured, after a short engagement, Guayama. On August 8, they fought the battle of Las Palmas, and on August 13, the day after the terms of peace were signed at Paris, the command was engaged in making a general attack upon the Spanish blockhouse in the mountains around Guay- ama, and was stopped by a messenger from headquarters an- nouncing the close of the war. The troops were returned to the United States early in November, and proceeded from

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New York City, where they were landed, to Washington, and there they were received by President and Mrs. McKinley at the White House. They were bonorably discharged at Columbus, Ohio, in January, 1899. Mr. Hodges was neither wounded nor was he confined in the hospital, as were so many of his comrades, and after his discharge returned to his studies in the university at Delaware, Ohio.

During the World war be also rendered a loyal service, and was chairman of the Pendleton County War Board, was a member of the County Council of Defense, and chairman of the drives for the Salvation Army and the Young Men's Christian Association. He participated in all of the drives for the sale of Liberty Bonds and those of the Red Cross, canvassing the county in their behalf and making many eloquent speeches at different gatherings. He was also secretary of the Home Service section of the Red Cross.

Mr. Hodges is a member of the Franklin Presbyterian Church, manager of benevolences for the congregation and teaches the Men's Bible Class in the Sunday school. His religious work is not confined to the local con- gregation, however, for he is president of the Franklin Dis- triet State Sunday School Association, and was a delegate to the last state convention of this association held at Charleston. Made a member of Beta Theta Pi at the Ohio Wesleyau University, he was one of the founders of the present chapter in the University of West Virginia. He is a member of the Modern Woodmen of America, and past counsel of the local camp. He has been advanced through Ancient Arabic Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, and Wheel- ing Consistory, No. 1 Scottish Rite. He has been Wheeling Consistory, No. 1 Scottish Rite. He has been worshipful master of Pendleton Lodge, A. F. and A. M. for eleven years, except two, and is serving his third ap- pointment as district deputy grand master for the Four- teenth Masonic District of West Virginia.

On December 13, 1905, Mr. Hodges married at Franklin, Miss Carrie McCoy Campbell, a daughter of the late W. A. and Mary V. (McCoy) Campbell. Mrs. Hodges was born in Highland County, Virginia, was educated in the Franklin schools, and is the younger child in her parents' family, consisting of her and her brother, Roy L. Campbell, of Franklin. On her mother's side of the house Mrs. Hodges is closely related to Gen. William McCoy, for twenty years congressman from Virginia, chairman of the ways and means committee of the House of Representatives, and a man so prominent that he was offered, but refused, a place in the cabinet of President Andrew Jackson. Throngh her father, Mrs. Hodges is descended from the famous Lewis family of Augusta County, Virginia, which had representa- tives in the battle of Point Pleasant with old Chief Corn- stalk, one of whom was General Lewis of Revolutionary fame. Mr. and Mrs. Hodges have one daughter, Mary Virginia, who was born September 13, 1908, and is now a high-school student.

As before stated, Mr. Hodges is city attorney of the City of Franklin and has devoted much of his time and energy to the betterment of the city. He is attorney for the Farm- ers Bank of Fraukliu, and for the Stephen B. Elkins estate in Pendleton County. Mr. Hodges and two of his brothers own and operate the Hodges Orchard at Keyser, a noted fruit-growing section of the state. For years he bas been a persistent agitator for permanent roads, and is now seeing the fruition of his hopes and labors in the present construction of hard-surface roads through his own and adjacent counties of the state.

In all of his service, public and private, in war and peace, Mr. Hodges has shown a flawless integrity above question or criticism. All who know him intimately recog- nize his honesty, and a careful inspection of his record fails to reveal a single act properly subject to the smallest criti- cism, judged by the highest standards of honor.

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History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 3, Part 180

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