History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 3, Part 195

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O. R. Garsonel

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HISTORY OF WEST VIRGINIA

ome of the outstanding features of progress during his dministration included the building of the Parsons High chool, the raising of the entrance requirements for the ligh School, the encouragement of corn, potato and tomato lubs as a means of stimulating interest in practical agri- ulture, and the introduction of the Junior High School at Thomas and Davis.

Mr. Parsons retired from office in 1921, and for a short ime was active in the banking business with the Tucker ounty Bank at Parsons. He is still a director. Mr. Par- ons holds a life certificate issued to him by the state as a eward for his service in the field of education and granted n 1919.

While he was still superintendent he acquired, in 1919, vith H. W. Auvil as a partner, the mercantile business of I. E. Robinson at Parsons, and since severing his active onnection with the bank he has devoted himself to the rowing business of the firm of Auvil & Parsons. Mr. Parsons also took a leading part in securing the establish- nent of the Philippi Blanket Mill at Parsons, of which he s a stockholder. He is also interested in farming and wns a farm in his native district of the county.

He cast his first vote in 1896, when Mr. Bryan was a andidate for President. He has been a delegate to several ongressional and state conventions of his party, and has erved on the Democratic Central Committee of the party. During the World war he was registered under the second raft law, and he worked with the home organizations in promoting bond sales and assisting the Red Cross and other rganizations. He was one of the Four-Minute Speakers in Tucker County.

At Parsons, June 21, 1905, Mr. Parsons married Mary Elizabeth Dear, daughter of Dr. W. W. and Annie Lee 'Hinkle) Dear. Her father was a native of Augusta County, Virgina, and lived for many years in Highland County, Virginia, but died in Parsons in 1922. Mrs. Par- ons was the third of four daughters, the others being Miss Gertrude aud Miss Ethel, the latter with the law firm f Talbott & Hoover of Elkins; and Mattie, wife of Hunt- ey Hoffman, of Mineral County. Mrs. Parsons, who was born in Highland County, October 14, 1885, supplemented er common school work in the summer normal schools and began teaching at the age of sixteen, and was a teacher for everal years after her marriage. She holds the second high- st grade granted in the teachers examination in Tucker County. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Parsons are: Thelma Ruth, Marian Dear and Annie Lee.

For a number of years Mr. Parsons has been active in fraternal organizations, being affiliated with the Lodge of Masons, is a past noble grand of the Odd Fellows Lodge ind past chancellor of the Knights of Pythias. He joined the Methodist Church when a youth, and has been trustee of the church and superintendent of the Sunday school, acting in both capacities at the present time.

W. S. MASON, founder and president of the Mason School, has through this institution given Charleston rank as a capital of music and fine arts as well as the seat of the state government of West Virginia. Mr. Mason is a native of Charleston, and to this city he returned with the training and honors of a broadly extensive musical education and career, and The Mason School represents his earnest and dignified efforts continued for sixteen years.

He was born at Charleston in 1873, and acquired his early education in the city schools. Later he attended St. Joseph's Academy and St. Xavier's College in Cincinnati, and while in that city began his serious musical training and education in the Cincinnati College of Music. He was a student there four years, and was given a thorough groundwork in theory, harmony and composition. He took up the violin as his special instrument. Subsequently he studied one year in New York City and for three years in Europe, principally at the Royal Academy in Munich and in the Schola Cantorum in Paris. At Paris he was a pupil of one of the greatest modern composers, Vincent d'Indy. While in Europe Mr. Mason specialized in conducting and in composition and theory of music. His musical talents came into evidence when he was a boy, and for eight years

he gave his undivided energy and thought to his musical education.

After his return to this country he was a violinist in various orchestras and later an orchestra conductor. Then, in 1906, he founded The Mason School of Music in his native city. From the first he has kept this school on the high plane of his individual ideals, and has broadened his scope only as he could secure talent of similar qualifications aud equally high ideals. From a school of music it has added departments until it now embraces instruction in languages, arts and crafts, artistic dancing and dramatic ex- pression. The school is an incorporated institution with Mr. Mason, president, Harrison B. Smith, vice president, and Matilda R. Mason, secretary and treasurer. Primarily The Mason School is an institution for the training of persons of competent talent for professional work in the musical and allied arts, though an increasing number of students have sought the school's advantages as a source of training for general and well rounded culture.

In 1921 this school, with its various departments, occupied a new home, a fine building at 1316 Kanawha Street. This building was remodeled and enlarged to meet the special requirements of the school. For several years Mr. Mason has conducted the Charleston Symphony Orchestra in Charleston. Under his direction this has become a notable musical organization. Its weekly concerts, given on Sunday afternoon, have become a prominent feature of the artistic and musical life of the city.

JOSEPH H. HOGE is founder and president of the Blue- field Produce & Provision Company, Incorporated, a com- pany with established connections radiating all over the southern counties and one of the leading concerns of its kind in the state. Mr. Hoge enjoys an exceptionally high standing in financial and business circles at Bluefield, where, though one of the younger business men in years, he has been identified with commercial affairs throughout the period marking the great forward progress of this city.

Mr. Hoge was born in Hoge Store, Giles County, Vir- ginia, February 27, 1884, son of Samuel S. and Mary (Price) Hoge, natives of Virginia. His father was a farmer and a man of intellectual interests, performing his duty as a good citizen but not mixing in partisan politics. He was a member of the Masonic order.

Joseph H. Hoge acquired a common school education at Hoge Store and spent two years in Roanoke College. He left school at the age of eighteen and soon afterward came to Bluefield and engaged in the produce business, starting with limited capital and gradually extending his trade until in 1904 he incorporated the Bluefield Produce & Provision Company, and has been steadily extending its plant and facilities until the company now does an annual business valued at more than $1,500,000. The company operates on a capital of $160,000.

In December, 1905, in Rappahannock County, Virginia, Mr. Hoge married Miss Eliza Strother. She was a daughter of Judge James and Mary (Botts) Strother. Mrs. Hoge died February 25, 1911, leaving two sons, Strother and Joseph H., Jr. On June 24, 1914, Mr. Hoge married Miss Bessie Ellett, daughter of Dr. R. T. and Sue (French) Ellett. To this marriage have been born two children: William Ellett and Robert Sayers. Mr. Hoge is a member of the Episcopal Church, is a Royal Arch and Knight Templar Mason and Shriner, and is an active and influential member of the Chamber of Commerce and Rotary Club. He plays golf as a member of the Bluefield Country Club.

IRA V. COWGILL has been a member of the Hampshire County bar for sixteen years, is successfully established in general practice at Romney, and is one of the leaders in the democratic party in this section of the state. For some years he was associated with the school interests of the coun- ty. He commenced teaching at an early age and followed the profession for some years, being principal, and county superintendent of schools for four years, and still keeps in close touch with educational progrese and interests in his home county.

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The Cowgill family was established by four brothers who, with their mother, Ellen Cowgill, came from England with the colony of William Penn in 1682, the father having pre- viously died in England. All of them established homes in Pennsylvania, and in later years one branch of the family joined in the pioneer settlement of Kentucky, and others came into Virginia. The great-grandfather of the Romney lawyer was Ewing Cowgill, who came from Pennsylvania to Hampshire County. One of his children was James Alex- ander Cowgill who made his home near Cold Stream in Hampshire County, and died there at the age of sixty-four, in 1882. He was a pioneer minister of the Church of Christ, both in his home locality and over sections of West- ern Virginia and Southern West Virginia. He did much organization work for his church, was an eloquent preacher, a thorough Bible scholar, and was largely self educated. Hc is remembered as a man of very heavy build, of extraordi- nary mentality, and of sterling integrity. James A. Cowgill also served as chaplain of the One Hundred-and-Fourteenth Virginia Infantry in the Confederate Army under Col. A. Monroe. He married Frances Hiett, daughter of Jeremiah Hiett and a sister of Col. Asa Hiett, a soldier in the Con- federate Army, and representative from Hampshire County in the Legislatures of Virginia and West Virginia, and a granddaughter of Evan Hiett, a Quaker minister, who came to this part of Virginia from South Carolina. The Hietts originally were French Huguenots who settled in the Pal- metto State as refugees from their persecutors in France. Mrs. James A. Cogwill was born in 1813, survived her hus- band five years, and was the mother of four sons, Zachary Taylor, John Marshall, Alexander Campbell and Cyrus Bar- clay. The first and last named died in early infancy.

Alexander Campbell Cowgill was born October 14, 1854, in Hampshire County, West Virginia, on what was formerly the old estate of Jeremiah Hiett, later owned the same and there resided until the spring of 1918, when he removed to West Falls Church in Fairfax County, Virginia. He ac- quired a public school education in Hampshire County, and his active career has been divided between teaching and farming. He, with his son Grady Ernest Cowgill, has a farm and a profitable orchard at West Falls Church. His wife was Miss Frances Wolford, who was born in Hamp- shire County, December 11, 1856, daughter of Azariah and Jane (Shanholtzer) Wolford. The Wolfords and Shanholt- zers were substantial agricultural people of this region, being of German ancestry. Alexander C. Cowgill and wife had the following named children: Lenore, who died in 1906; Ira Voorhees, of Romney; James Lucas, now of West Falls Church, Virginia, who was educated at Capon Bridge Normal, taught in graded schools, owns and operates a farm at West Falls Church, and is in the service of the United States Government; Ethel Naomi, who was educated at Capon Bridge Normal, was an educator in Hampshire, Mineral and Berkeley counties until her marriage to Mr. Edgar H. Fletcher, who is an official of the United States Weather Bureau in the Yellowstone National Park; Grady Ernest, who has a liberal education, taught in Hampshire and other counties, is joint owner and operator, with his father, of the farm at West Falls Church, is now in the Railway Postal service between Washington and Pittsburgh; Edna Frances, a graduate of the public schools of Hamp- shire County, and living with her parents.

Ira V. Cowgill studied in the public schools of Hampshire County until he was fifteen. At the age of sixteen, the earliest age then lawful, he earned the first grade certificate. He attended the Capon Bridge Normal, taught school for eleven terms in Hampshire and Mineral counties, and for three years was principal of the Romney Schools. He took his law course in West Virginia University, graduating in 1906, and in the same year was admitted to the bar at Romney. He has been admitted to practice and practices in the Supreme Court of Appeals of the State and in the Federal Courts. During the four years he was county super- intendent of Schools the program he emphasized for the constructive improvement of the schools in addition to the routine work of supervision, including the duties of county financial secretary, which office was established during his

incumbency, consisted, among other things, of hetter and more spacious playgrounds for the children, more comfort- able and hygienic buildings, and the indirect method of ventilation and unilateral lighting of school buildings.

Since leaving the office of county superintendent Mr. Cowgill has devoted himself to his law practice. He was a member of the law firm of Cornwell and Cowgill from 1916 until the latter part of 1920. Mr. Cowgill was elected chair- man of the Democratic Executive Committee of Hampshire County in 1914, and served in that capacity until 1920, when he was made a member of the Democratic State Executive Committee from the Fifteenth Senatorial District. He was a delegate to the State Democratic Convention in Hunting- ton in 1921, in Parkersburg in 1916, and to the Wheeling State Convention of 1920.

Mr. Cowgill was Federal food administrator for Hamp- shire County during the World war, was a member of the Legal Advisory Board, and like other lawyers, was drafted to assist the registrants. He was a Four-Minute Speaker, and assisted in all the Red Cross, War Savings Stamps and Liberty Loan drives. Mr. Cowgill is an elder in the Romney Church of Christ.

At Cadiz, Olio, October 4, 1911, he married Miss Maude Muriel Johnston, who was born near that Ohio town, daughter of Andrew Jackson and Samantha E. (Smith) Johnston. The Johnstons and the Smiths were among the original settlers of Harrison County, Ohio. Mrs. Cowgill was born and reared in sight of Moravian Ridge, over which the Confederate General John Morgan raided during his invasion of Southern Ohio. She was educated in the public schools of Ohio, and won the degree of Bachelor of Philos- ophy from Bethany College. Her maternal great-grand- father, William P. Smith, was a successful farmer and edu- cator, and built one of the first spacious brick mansions in that section of Ohio. Her grandmother, Mary Jane (Miller) Smith's mother, Margaret Gillespie (Lightner) Miller, was a cousin of James Gillespie Blaine, a speaker of the United States House of Representatives and republican nominee for president in 1884.

To the union of Mr. and Mrs. Cowgill has been born one child, Hannah Mary Cowgill.

WILLIAM GRAY BARNHART, by reason of his four years' service as United States district attorney for the Southern District of West Virginia and as head of one of the busiest law firms at Charleston, achieved a really state wide repu- tation at the bar of West Virginia.

These achievements were the result of a comparatively brief lifetime. He was born near Buffalo in Putnam County April 15, 1880, and died on Christmas Eve, December 24, 1921. He was a son of Lewis and Isabel (Hartley) Barn- hart. His father, also deceased, was a native of Pennsyl- vania and of Holland ancestry, and for years enjoyed a high place at the bar of Winfield, county seat of Putnam County. A surviving brother of William G. Barnhart is A. J. Barn- hart, manager of the Charleston Association of Credit Men. The late Mr. Barnhart was a popular member of the Elks and Knights of Pythias. He married Miss Nettie E. Gillespie, of Braxton County. He was the father of two children, Ruth Frances, by a former marriage, and William Gray, Jr.

Mr. Barnhart well earned the tribute paid him by the Kanawha County Bar Association, whose memorial, now included in the records of the State and Federal Courts of West Virginia, is a concise review of his life and is pre- sented herewith:

"The death of William Gray Barnhart was the fifth among the Kanawha bar in the year 1921, a mortality that is remarkable. Our deceased brother was born April 15, 1880, at Buffalo in Putuam County, and was educated in the local schools of that county and in the University of West Virginia, from which he graduated in 1902. He was admitted to the bar of Putnam County immediately after his graduation, and in the same year was elected to the Legislature from that county, and served in the regular session of 1903 and the extra session of 1904. In 1907 he removed to Charleston, and practiced law in this city, and

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n 1913 was appointed United States district attorney for he Southern District of West Virginia, which position he eld until 1917, when he resigned to take up private prac- ice. His official record as district attorney was very high. Ie was prompt, active, energetic, and very able in the prose- ution of the pleas of the government. In June, 1920, he entered the law firm of Barnhart, Horan and Pettigrew. Ie was a hard working, energetic, strong and successful awyer, and an advocate of very marked powers. He was oted for his fidelity to his clients and the painstaking way n which he prepared and tried his cases. His practice xtended throughout Southern West Virginia, and this made is acquaintance with the people very wide. Such a man could not keep out of politics, but his participation in politics was not selfish, and he was more often looking after the political party of which he was a member than is own personal interest. There were few men in the state with greater powers upon the 'stump' and he found it difficult to resist the demands of his friends throughout Southern West Virginia whenever a campaign was on, and often he would yield to these demands to the sacrifice of his own personal interest. Few men had more devoted per- sonal friends. Just before he died he had settled himself down to the practice of law to the exclusion of everything else, and that success was attendant which always comes to a lawyer from application and ability. His death, from our narrow viewpoint, seems untimely. Barely in the prime of life, thoroughly equipped for a professional career, it seemed that he was just fairly beginning as a successful lawyer. His fellow members of the bar deeply regret his untimely death, and feel that this bar has lost a strong arm, and a member who would have added still further luster aud honor to our profession."

WILLIAM ALONZO CORDER. In Barbour County the name Corder has come to stand for all those qualities and deeds that are significant of integrity in business and social rela- tionship. William Alonzo Corder, popularly known among his friends as "Lonnie," has steadfastly emulated the virtues of his father and grandfather in this respect, and as stockman, banker and man of affairs his personal judg- ment is as nearly standardized in current acceptation among his friends and associates as any coin of character can possibly be. Members of the Corder family have lived plain and modest lives have done well for themselves and have assisted others to the extent of their power-have been useful, honorable and responsible at all times.

The name Corder is of English and Irish ancestry. The founder of the American family was Joseph Corder, who came from England and settled in Virginia about the close of the Revolutionary war. His children consisted of four daughters and four sons, the sons being James, Joseph, William and John. James moved to Ohio and settled at Circleville, John located near Logansport, Indiana, and Joseph crossed the Blue Ridge Mountains in 1838 into Western Virginia.

The other son, William, grandfather of William A. Cor- der, was born March 29, 1785, in that portion of Frederick County now Fauquier County, Virginia. On September 14, 1811, he married Sarah Cole, of German ancestry and a native of Loudoun County, Virginia. In 1814, with two young children, they crossed the Alleghany Mountains, pass- ing through the wilderness until in December they reached what is now Barbour, then a part of Harrison County. Here William Corder bought fifty acres of land for $450. He bought this from Peter Robinson, and it was located on Hacker, near Philippi. On the land he put up a small cabin of hewn logs, and within its walls started the simple life of the pioneer. From an humble beginning his indus- try carried him into the ranks of the well-to-do, and eventu- ally he became owner of 1,200 acres. He and his wife had eleven children, named Joseph, William, Joshua, James, John, Edward, Elizabeth, Martha Ann, Mary, Ingaby and Hannah. Edward was a captain in the Confederate army during the Civil war, dying from wounds received while leading his men in action. His last words as he was bleed- ing to death were: "Go on men, push forward and save the day. I am a dead man."

Of this family James Corder was born on Hacker, near Philippi, January 15, 1824. Pioneer days had not altogether disappeared while he was a boy, and in a new country he had only an education supplied by subscription schools a few weeks each year. He was well prepared for a life of toil and activity when he reached manhood. Remaining under the parental roof until he was thirty-five years of age, he was then given about 200 acres of land by his father. At that time land was cheap and this inheritance represented only an opportunity for hard work and long persevering toil. He paid the price of success on these terms, and at one time his estate was represented by 1 500 acres and much real estate and personal property besides. At his death on March 16, 1905, he was regarded as one of the wealthiest men in the county, and the wealth of esteem paid his character was even greater. He was a conservative and careful business man, and an example of his conserva- tism is found in the fact that he took nearly ten years to perfect and arrange his will. His old friends still say of him that while he was slow in arriving at a definite con- clusion he was always right and he never broke his word. He made money as a farmer and through cattle, and he had few equale as a judge of live stock. He had made con- siderable progress toward accumulating a moderate portion when the Civil war came on, and before it was over he was down at the bottom of the ladder and had to begin over again. A Southern sympathizer, he suffered the inevitable hostility paid a Southern man, and when the Jones raiders came through Philippi they ran off his cattle and horses and took away much other personal property. He met the men on the road driving off his live stock, and stopping them, he pleaded that they return him the oxen, which were his sole dependents for hauling wood. One of the raiders threatened to shoot him if he did not get out of the way, but he refused to yield and in the end he secured his yoke of oxen. However, the loss of the cattle left him heavily in debt. In that crisis he went to his father for assistance. His father was regarded as a wealthy man, but, without directly refusing the aid asked, felt that it would be a good test of character for a young man still with his best years before him if permitted to depend upon his own resources in this emergency. The young man then borrowed money at 10 per cent interest in order to restock his farm, and he proved equal to the test and before long had recouped his losses and was once more rated as a man of wealth.

James Corder married Mary C. Bond, daughter of Reuben Bond. She was born in Harrison County, August 10, 1830, and died November 27, 1904. The children of this good old couple were: William Alonzo; A. B. Corder, of Taylor County; Icy, who is Mrs. L. D. Woodford, of Philippi; Sarah, who married W. F. Cole, of Barbour County; and Stella, who died when in her 'teens.

James Corder was not a man to regard his responsibilities ended with looking after his own interests. He was one of the leading members of the Primitive Baptist Church in his community. He and his brother Joshua built what is known as the Mount Olive Church on Hacker, and that house of worship is still standing. He was not a seeker of public office, though asked many times to serve. He gave liberally to church and charitable causes, and was more than willing to come to the assistance of his friends and neighbors in time of need and he served them in the true spirit of Christian fellowship.

A son of James W. and Mary C. (Bond) Corder, William Alonzo Corder was born on Hacker in Barbour County, October 20, 1862. While he has no recollection of the war itself, his early youth was spent in the period immediately following the war, when the country in general was recover- ing and while his father was making valiant efforts to re- establish himself as a stock man. He made the best pos- sible use of such educational opportunities as were at hand, and while he realizes now that conditions were rather hard and that he was deprived of many of the advantages given to youth of more modern times, he also feels that his character was really strengthened in this school of hard knocks, and the lessons of thrift he thus gained have been of inestimable value to him in later years. Farming and stock raising have constituted his primary activities, and,

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History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 3, Part 195

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