History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 3, Part 191

Author:
Publication date:
Publisher:
Number of Pages:

USA > West Virginia > History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 3 > Part 191

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

, member of the Board of Directors of the company. Mr. Williamson has not only done effective work in improving and building up the facilities of the company in the state, but is widely known for his generous attitude toward the public and his ability to encourage cooperation be- tween the people and the company, resulting in the general betterment of the service.

Mr. Williamson is a member of the Board of Trustees of the First Methodist Episcopal Church, superintendent of the Sunday School, and is a York and Scottish Rite Mason and Shriner, being a past potentate of Beni-Kedem Temple and has several times represented the temple in the Imperial Council. He married Miss Elizabeth S. Slack, a native of Charleston, and daughter of John Slack. They have one daughter, Mrs. Harriet W. Barrett.

SAMUEL GROVER SMITH. As a young civil and construc- tion engineer Samuel Grover Smith came to West Virginia nearly twenty years ago. He helped build and manage some of the important industrial railroads in the southern part of the state, but in recent years has turned his time and attention chiefly to the business of coal production, being twice president and treasurer of the Indian Run Coal Com- pany, treasurer of the Indian Run Collieries Company, and a director in several other companies.

Mr. Smith, who is well known in social as well as in busi- ness circles at Charleston, was born at Philadelphia, August 9, 1884. Most of his youth was spent at Selinsgrove, Penn- sylvania, where he attended public schools, and for two years he was a student in a college at Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. At the age of eighteen he entered the engineering depart- ment of the Pennsylvania Railroad, and in 1904, at the age of twenty, came to Charleston in the employ of the Coal & Coke Railway while they had under construction more than a hundred miles of new road. From 1906 to 1916 he was officially connected with the developing of the mining properties of the Blue Creek Coal & Land Company and the building and operating of the Kanawha and West Virginia Railroad, and in 1916 he handled the negotiations by which the Kanawha and West Virginia Railroad was sold to the New York Central.

For the following three years he was general manager of the Blue Creek Coal and Land Company, and since August, 1919, has been vice president and treasurer of the Indian Run Coal Company of Charleston, West Virginia, one of the largest coal wholesale concerns in Southern West Vir- ginia. He is interested in several other producing com- panies.

Mr. Smith is a member of the First Presbyterian Church, and was vice chairman of the recent Billy Sunday revival campaign in Charleston. He is a Knight Templar, thirty- second degree Mason, and Shriner, a member of the Rotary Club and a director of the Charleston Y. M. C. A. In 1907 Mr. Smith married Miss Mabel Hickel, of Charleston. They have a son, Grover Smith, Jr., born in 1910.

ISAAC I. RILEY has been a resident of South Carolina since 1914. He was one of the local men of enterprise who have done most to influence capital and industrial develop- ments in this section. He has employed a great deal of capital of his own in building and other development work. He is a merchant by long experience, and still conducts a business at South Charleston, where most of his work bas been in the field of real estate for some years.

He was born in Roane County, West Virginia, December 22, 1857, son of William and Marianne (Jones) Riley, the father born in Lewis County, West Virginia and the mother in Hardy County. William Riley, with his brother George W., settled in Roane County at an early day. They purchased large tracts of land. The boyhood of Isaac I. Riley was spent on a farm, and he equipped himself for life in the public schools and at the age of eighteen began teaching. He taught for several terms in rural districts, and following that was a farmer and also became a merchant at Flat Fork in Roane County. In 1891 he moved to Walton, in the same county, where he conducted a general store for ten years. In the meantime, in 1896, be began taking an active part in local politica and was appointed

deputy sheriff of Roane County under Sheriff M. B. Mathews, and in order to devote more time to this office, he moved to the county seat at Spencer in 1901. He was also in business there, and in 1910 was made postmaster at Spencer, under President Taft's administration. He served until the Wilson administration, and in 1914 he located at South Charleston. He did not immediately en- gage in business there, but instead opened a store at West Charleston. With a keen foresight as to possible develop- ment of the industrial site of South Charleston, he joined with others in building up the town and has constructed several business buildings as well as residences. He built one business block, with a frontage of six stores, also a hotel and apartment building, and has improved some of the de- sirahle residence sections of the town. Some time since he closed out his store at West Charleston, but recently opened a grocery store in South Charleston.

Mr. Riley has continued to take an active part and leader- ship in republican politics. He attended a number of state and district conventions while in Roane County.

In Roane County he married Mary Louise Goodwin, daughter of Hiram Goodwin. Mr. and Mrs. Riley are proud of their large family of children, eight of whom are living. One son, Oral F., was a successful merchant at West Charleston, and died at the age of thirty-five. The living children are: Oma, wife of Reece Kent, of Greensboro, North Carolina; Belva, Mrs. Roy Murray, of Akron, Ohio; Grace, wife of R. L. Hayes, of Spencer, West Virginia; Ruth, Mrs. Roscoe Carden, of Hinton, West Virginia; Macel, wife of W. G. Moore, of South Charleston; Anna and Mary Louise, both at home; and Charles D., who is now in office work and is an ex-service man. He served as a first lieutenant in the border troubles and later in France with the Ex- peditionary Forces.

LEMUEL R. CUTRIGHT, of Upshur County, is in his seventy- second year, and is probably the youngest Grand Army man in West Virginia. He was in service only the latter months of the great struggle, but four of his older brothers were in the service practically from the beginning of the war. The Cutrights have been a prominent family in Upshur County since pioneer days, and the name has always been associated with stalwart Americanism.

Lemuel R. Cutright, who is still living on his farm on the French Creek Pike, a half mile north of Adrian, was born in Upshur County, February 3, 1850, son of Elmore and Nancy A. (Wolfe) Cutright. His father was born near Hampton, West Virginia, December 31, 1820, and his mother on Middle Fork in Upshur County, January 10, 1823. After their marriage they settled on a farm near Hampton, and in October, 1870, moved to another farm in Rowan County, where they lived out their lives. They were devout Meth- odists in religion, and the father always upheld the prin- ciples of the republican party. In their family were twelve children, a brief record of whom follows: Mifflin, born April 9, 1841, who was one of the soldiers of the family in the Civil war; Granville S., born October 29, 1842, who also had a military record; Abraham, born March 23, 1844, who died while in the army; Mary E., born November 14, 1845, now deceased; Jacob E., born July 6, 1847, who was a soldier and is still living; Lemuel R .; Asa, born August 6, 1851; James A., born July 5, 1853, deceased; Alonzo, born December 13, 1854; Columbus, born May 6, 1856; Indiana, born December 27, 1857; and Derwinda J., born May 18, 1859.

Lemuel R. Cutright grew up on a farm, was educated in the common schools, and in 1865, at the age of fifteen, was mustered into Company I of the Third West Virginia Cavalry. He was with that command during the concluding phases of the Civil war, and then came home and went to work on the farm. Farming has been his steady occupation during all subsequent years, and he still lives on his place of fifty-seven acres. He is one of the directors of the Bank of Adrian, is a member of the Grand Army Post at Buck- bannon and has stanchily upheld the republican party in many successive campaigns.

On November 14, 1867, Mr. Cutright married Salina Brady. Her death on March 31, 1917, occurred only a few

580

HISTORY OF WEST VIRGINIA

months before they should have celebrated their golden wedding anniversary. To their marriage were born eleven children: Aura M., born October 16, 1870, at home; Allen B., born January 2, 1873, deputy sheriff of Upshur County ; Elva, born June 3, 1875, wife of Charles Hyre; James E., born June 10, 1877; Bertha, born June 2, 1879, deceased; Holly, born May 27, 1881; Carl, born June 13, 1883; Maude, born October 5, 1885, wife of Mack Cutright; Lora, born September 2, 1888, wife of G. C. Marsh; and two other chil- dren that died in infancy.

RALPH M. CowL is proprietor of one of the largest fruit farms in Hancock County, an orchard developed by his father, the late Rev. John Cowl. This place is at Cowl Station, at the mouth of Tomlinson's Run, three miles north of New Cumberland.

Rev. John Cowl was born in Cornwall, England, in 1818, and at the age of three was brought to the United States, his father, John Cowl, locating at Maryland and some years later coming to Wheeling, where he followed his trade as a shoemaker. John, the son, was first bound out to learn the trade of making sandpaper. The second time he was bound out to a blacksmith, and had a six years apprenticeship. He educated himself, and having early committed himself to the ministry he diligently studied Latin and Greek and other subjects in the intervals of his hard working days, and at the age of twenty-eight entered the ministry of the Methodist Protestant Church. He filled pastorates at Wheel- ing and other places in the Pittsburgh Conference, and about 1856 preached at Nessly Chapel, his home being at Fairview. He continued to carry the burdens of serving a circuit of several churches until past sixty, and even after retiring was frequently called to preach funerals. About 1866 he bought land at the mouth of Tomlinson's Run, and kept up his plantings on the 150 acres until about half of it was in bearing fruit. On this farm he spent his remain- ing years and died in 1898. Rev. John Cowl was a man of tremendous vigor and enthusiasm, gave himself heart and soul to every undertaking, and was a thoroughly positive character. He was a republican in politics.

Rev. John Cowl married Elizabeth Hunter, of Washington County, Pennsylvania, and she died at the age of eighty- four. They had seven children: William R., who became a minister after serving as a soldier in the Civil war; John, who went to Oklahoma and acquired a large farm; Water- man, who was in the grain and coal business in Iowa when he died; Sumner, who became a minister of the Methodist Protestant Church and died during the first year of his pastorate; Ralph M .; Sadie, living in California, widow of J. O. Miller; and Mary, wife of George Brenneman.

Ralph M. Cowl was born in Allegheny County, Pennsyl- vania, October 7, 1860, but since he was six years of age has lived at the old homestead in Hancock County. He married Kate Stewart, daughter of Samuel Stewart. They have three sons. John S. was in service in France from September, 1918, to July, 1919, with the S. O. S. Depart- ment, and after returning home spent one year in the Carnegie Steel Company's plant at Clairton, Pennsylvania. He graduated from Washington and Jefferson College in 1918. Ralph H., the second son, was a member of the Students' Army Training Corps during the war while at the university at Morgantown. Stewart, the youngest son, is in his first year at Washington and Jefferson College.

WILLIAM OSBORNE. To the credit of William Osborne stands the record of two terms as United States marshal for the Southern District of West Virginia and a long service as a county official and educator.

Mr. Osborne, who as United States marshal had his home in Charleston, was born in Pike County, Kentucky, January 9, 1872, son of A. M. and Arminia Osborne, natives of the same state and both of Scotch-Irish ancestry.

William Osborne grew up on a farm and lived with his parents until he was sixteen. He then moved to West Virginia to live with an uncle, whose home was on Mud River in Boone County. Possessing a good education and lofty ideals, he soon qualified as a teacher, and taught

sixteen different schools in Boone County. In 1898 Mr. Osborne was elected county superintendent of schools for that county, and for four years was the efficient head of the school administration there. Following that for some years he was a trader and dealer in lumber and timber. Then, in 1908, he was elected county clerk of Boone County, an office he filled six years.

Mr. Osborne was appointed United States marshal for the Southern District of West Virginia, February 18, 1914, by President Wilson, and began his duties in February of that year. His district embraced twenty-four counties. In 1918 be was re-appointed for another term of four years, and served until May 1, 1922. For one who so long has been in official life Mr. Osborne's record is an exceptional one in its integrity and continuous efficiency. As United States marshal he discharged his duties fear- lessly, and he had the handling of many complicated situa- tions in his district.

Mr. Osborne is a stanch democrat, and is a York and Scottish Rite Mason and Shriner. He married Miss Jose- phine Workman, of Boone County, and they are the parents of a daughter, Miss Pearl Osborne.

ALDINE S. POLING is a veteran editor and newspaper man of West Virginia, being founder and proprietor of the Barbour Democrat at Philippi. He was a successful teacher, later studied and qualified for the bar, but instead found his vocation and life-work in "the fourth estate. "

Mr. Poling was born in Glade District, Barbour County, January 14, 1867. His grandfather, James Poling, came to this section of West Virginia in pioneer times from old Virginia and spent his life as a farmer in Glade District. He had a large family, his sons being Elam, Nathaniel, Perry, Brown, Isaac, Salathiel, Emery and Tazewell, while his daughters were Annie, who married Marshall Stal- maker; Rebecca, whose first husband was Mortimer Johnson and the second, C. K. Rymer; Luverna, who was the only one of the family who remained unmarried; and Virginia, who became the wife of Wesley Bean. These children not only married, but most of them had many descendants, and as many of these remained in Barbour County Aldine S. Poling probably has more relatives in the region than any other man.

The father of Aldine S. Poling was Isaac Poling, who was born in Barbour County and who married Elfanzine Corder, a native of Warren County, Virginia. Her only child was Aldine S., but the latter has a half brother, Wade Poling, of Glade District, and half sister named Mrs. Etta Hudkins, Mrs. Matrona Wilmoth, Mrs. Bertie Wilson and Mrs. Rebecca Elliott.

Aldine S. Poling was reared in the home of an aunt in Pleasant District of Barbour County, and lived with ber until he began his university career. He attended the rural schools, summer normals, began teaching at the age of sixteen, and for ten years his program was teaching a term or two and then attending school himself. In this way he secured the money to complete his legal education and was graduated LL. B. from West Virginia University in 1892.

Before he could secure a clientele as a lawyer his old friend with whom he had first studied law induced him to start a democratic paper at Philippi. Thus he became the founder of the Barbour Democrat in 1893, the first issue of which appeared July 6, 1893. It has probably never missed an issue in nearly thirty years, and there have hardly been more than a half dozen issues of the paper run off the press without the editor's presence in the office. Mr. Poling is a man of ideals in the newspaper business. With the usual enthusiasm of youth he thought it necessary in early years to be strongly partisan, and he attacked his political op- ponents as vigorously as he boosted the interests of his own party in political or civic matters. Gradually experience and increasing years softened this part of his character, so that generosity and liberality have characterized his treat- ment of men and measures through his paper. He made the Barbour Democrat one of the first papers in the state ac- tively to advocate and fight the battle of temperance and prohibition. From the first he has believed that he had a

ـفي

581

HISTORY OF WEST VIRGINIA

duty to perform in editing and conducting a home news- paper, one free from sensation and the lurid presentation of crimes and scandals.

In addition to his service as an editor Mr. Poling has been a notary public for a number of years, largely a gratuitous service, has been secretary and a member of the Board of Education of the Philippi Independent District, and has been a trustee of Broaddus College since it was established here. He was one of the active leaders in se- curing this educational institution for Philippi, and he has seen it grow to be a larger institution than the State Uni- versity was when he was a student there. In politics Mr. Poling inherits democratic sentiments from both sides of the family. Fraternally he has been a Mason and Odd Fel- low since reaching his majority, and is also a member of the Knights of the Maccabees and the Junior Order United American Mechanics. He has sat in the Masonic Grand Lodge. For thirty-five years he has been a member of the Missionary Baptist Church, was superintendent of the Sun- day school ten years and represented the church in the Northern Baptist Convention at Boston, and has attended many of the general associations in the state.

At Philippi in December, 1893, Mr. Poling married Miss Lizzie W. Grant, daughter of Edward F. and Lydia (Skid- more) Grant, an old time family of Barbour County. Her father was a cabinet maker and undertaker, and for many years served as postmaster at Philippi. He was a repub- lican, and he died during the childhood of Mrs. Poling. Mrs. Poling has a half brother, Charles Grant. Mrs. Poling went to work in one of the local banks at Philippi at the age of seventeen, is still an employe of the Citizens National Bank, and is credited with more banking experience than any of the bankers in the city. Mr. and Mrs. Poling have two sons, Forrest Blanchard and Lawrence Edward. Forrest Blanchard, who graduated A. B. from West Virginia Uni- versity and is now in the University Law School, is an ex- service man, and spent twenty-two months at Camp Shelby, reaching the rank of top sergeant. The second son is a graduate of Broaddus College of Philippi, and is now con- tinuing his studies in the Ohio State University. He volunteered as a member of the Students' Army Training Corps in the naval contingent, and was at Morgantown dur- ing a portion of the war.

ODELL SCOTT TENNANT graduated from the Law School of West Virginia University, qualified for the bar, but found more attractive opportunities in the business field, and for the past fifteen years has been a leading figure in com- mercial affairs at Morgantown.

Mr. Tennant was born on a farm in Clay District, near Cassville, Monongalia County, January 8, 1885, son of Jefferson and Phoebe A. (Chesney) Tennant. His father was born on a farm near Pentriss in Clay District, February 9, 1845, son of Abraham and Mary (Rich) Tennant. Abra- ham Tennant was born August 15, 1810, in Monongalia County, son of William Tennant, founder of the name in this section of West Virginia. Richard Tennant, the father of William, was born in Glasgow Scotland, in 1744, served as a drummer boy in the Continental army during the Revolution, and was a pioneer settler in West Virginia. William Tennant, who was born August 12, 1778, married Catherine Brown. Abraham Tennant married Mary Rich, who was born in 1817. The mother of Odell S. Tennant, Phoebe A. Chesney, was born August 20, 1851, on the same farm as her son in Clay District, daughter of William and Mary (Hess) Chesney, representing two other pioneer fam- ilies of Monongalia County. Jefferson and Phoebe Tennant had the following children: Ida, wife of Shelby Aaron Barker, of Morgantown; Miss Harriet, who lives at home with her father; Etta, wife of G. H. F. Holy, who is con- nected with the Westinghouse Company at Pittsburgh; Willie Ritch, deceased; Iris C., wife of William C. Gist, a farmer near Wellsburg, West Virginia; Abraham W., who died June 10, 1921, survived by his widow, Mary (Smith) Tennant ; and Odell S.

Odell Scott Tennant was six years of age when his father left the farm in 1891 and moved to Morgantown. The object of this change of residence was to give the children

better educational advantages. Jefferson Tennant founded the Morgantown Roller Flour Mills in the year 1893, and he continued their successful operation until 1914, when he retired from active business. Odell S. Tennant acquired all his education in Morgantown, graduating from the high school in 1903, and receiving his law degree at the Univer- sity in 1906. He was admitted to the bar the same year, but instead of taking up practice joined his father in the flour mills in September, 1906, being a one-third partner. When his father retired in 1914 Odell Tennant sold his interest to his brother Abraham W. and entered the hard- ware and roofing business. He continued in this line until 1921, and still does a large business in hardware and roof- ing, though at the same time he was interested in the flour, feed and grain business which was established in 1893 and is the oldest enterprise of its kind at Morgantown. Mr. Tennant since 1919 has also been a manufacturer of cement blocks, and these various interests place a heavy demand upon his time and energies. He owns one-sixth of 750 acres of coal land in the Scott Run District.

Mr. Tennant is identified by membership with a number of representative organizations. These include Morgantown Union Lodge No. 4, F. and A. M., the Royal Arch Chapter, Knight Templar Commandery and Osiris Temple of the Mystic Shrine; Morgantown Lodge No. 411, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, Independent Order of Odd Fel- lows, Chamber of Commerce, Kiwanis Club and the First Methodist Episcopal Church. He is a member of the Busi- ness Men's Class in Sunday school, and for fifteen years was secretary of the Sunday school and for thirty years has had an unusual record of faithful attendance at Sunday school, bis absences not averaging more than five Sundays in each year.

On September 18, 1908, Mr. Tennant married Eva E. Townsend. She was born July 2, 1886, in Caro, Michigan, daughter of Samuel and Emily Townsend. Mr. and Mrs. Tennant have two children: Leland Chesney, born No- vember 7, 1909; and Paul Scott, born June 26, 1917. Mr. Tennant resides at 82 South Main Street and his business is at 178 Clay Street.

OLIVER NELSON KOEN. A native of Mannington, while some of his years and some of his interests have been elsewhere, Mr. Koen has been and is primarily concerned with the life and enterprise of his home community, and in a very important sense he has been one of the constructive influences in the development of that thriving little city of Marion County.

Mr. Koen was born at Mannington, October 28, 1845, son of Samuel H. and Mary (Nay) Koen. His parents were also born in what is now Marion County, both of them within three miles of Mannington. Samuel H. Koen, who died at the age of sixty-seven, was of English ancestry, was a successful farmer and merchant, and at one time owned land upon which the central part of Mannington is built. His general merchandise store on his land originated the community known as Koon's Corner, Koon being the former style of spelling the family name. Oliver Nay, the maternal grandfather of Oliver N. Koen, was also a large land owner in this vicinity, and some of his land is included in the western portion of Mannington.

Oliver Nelson Koen had a common school education. In 1861, before he was sixteen years of age, he enlisted in Company B of the Sixth West Virginia Infantry in the Union Army. He was in service three years, until receiv- ing his honorable discharge in August, 1864. He shared in the interesting record of that regiment, and when he had thus discharged his debt to the country he returned home and became a merchant. Mr. Koen sold goods at Manning- ton for nineteen years, and on leaving that business he became a landlord, conducting the Commercial Hotel for fourteen years. The old Commercial is now part of the Bartlett Hotel, being the same section which fronts on Main Street. Mr. Koen after retiring from the hotel busi- ness moved to Colorado and spent two years developing some land for irrigation. He now owns thirty-five hun- dred acres near La Mar in that state. On returning from Colorado he again engaged in the hotel business at Man-

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 3, Part 191

Author: Publication date: Publisher: Number of Pages:

Author:
Publication date:
Publisher:
Number of Pages: