History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 3, Part 2

Author:
Publication date:
Publisher:
Number of Pages:

USA > West Virginia > History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 3 > Part 2

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).

Governor MacCorkle is a democrat. He was elected and served as prosecuting attorney of Kanawha County from 1880 to 1889. His service as governor extended from March 4, 1893, to March 3, 1897. Some years later he was elected a member of the state Senate, serving from 1910 to 1914.

Governor MacCorkle is well known as a writer and is author of "Some Southern Questions," "The Monroe Doctrine,"' "The Book of the White Sulphur, " and many addresses and articles upon economic subjects.

October 19, 1881, he married Isabelle Goshorn, of Charles- ton.

REESE BLIZZARD. Considering the broad range of his services and activities Reese Blizzard, of Parkersburg, has lived an exceedingly busy life, and his friends have many times admired the wonderful energy which he has put into his undertakings. He is one of West Virginia's distinguished lawyers, formerly a circuit judge, and has also been a con- structive factor in the larger business affairs of the state.

Judge Blizzard was born in Nicholas County, West Vir- ginia, October 17, 1864, son of James and Elizabeth (Gill) Blizzard. His maternal grandfather came to this country from Ireland. His paternal grandfather, Alexander Bliz- zard, came from Scotland. His wife was a Campbell, also of Scotch ancestry and related to Alexander Campbell, founder of Bethany College, West Virginia. Alexander Blizzard made his home in New Jersey. James was one of his three sons, one of whom went to Ohio and the other to Indiana, while James settled in Greenbrier County, West Virginia. He was a clergyman of the Methodist Protestant Church, though his duties were only local. The greater part of his life was spent in West Virginia, and he was a private sol- dier in the Confederate army and wounded in the battle of Shiloh. He died in 1889 and his widow in 1907. James Blizzard's first wife was a daughter of Rev. A. T. Morrison, of Nicholas County, and she became the mother of ten chil- dren. His second wife, Elizabeth Gill, was the mother of thirteen children.

Reese Blizzard lived in Nicholas County until he was thir- teen, and thereafter made his home with his parents in Gilmer County until he reached his majority. Following that he spent some time in Calhoun County, and eventually came to Wood. County. His education was the product of common schools, and the Glenville Normal School at Glen- ville in Gilmer County. Among the experiences by which he made a living and prepared himself for bigger things he taught school, worked on a farm, clerked in a store, was as- sistant in the circuit clerk's office and carried mail. He read law at Glenville with the firm of Linn & Withers, and was admitted to the bar in 1886. Beginning practice at Grants- ville, he was soon recognized as a man of superior powers in the law and his practice came to extend all over Central West Virginia. Ten years after his admission to the bar he was elected circuit judge of the Sixth Judicial Circuit in 1896. The circuit was composed of the counties of Gilmer, Calhoun,

Roane, Jackson and Clay. As judge of that court he made the court a purely business machine, and attracted the atten- tion of the entire state by the rapidity with which he trans- acted the business of the court. He was only reversed twice by the Supreme Court during his entire term of office-a record never made by any other judge in the state. Judge Blizzard served only four years of his eight-year term, re- signing midway to remove to Parkersburg and engage in the general practice of the law.

In 1901 he was appointed by President Mckinley United States district attorney for the State of West Virginia. Soon after this the state was divided into two districts, and Judge Blizzard was made district attorney for the Northern District. He was reappointed by President Roosevelt, and had charge of all matters in his district under the Federal Department of Justice until 1910. For ten years he was at- torney for the Street Railway Company of Parkersburg. He has served as attorney for the Little Kanawha Syndicate Properties, and in that capacity directed the condemnation proceedings for the right of way from the Pennsylvania state line to Fairmont for the Buckhannon & Northern Railroad. Judge Blizzard is president of the Parkersburg Commercial Banking & Trust Company, president of the Parkersburg Ice Company, president of the Oil & Gas Company, and has many other business interests too numerous to mention. His chief hobby outside the practice of law is farming, and his home is on a beautiful suburban place at Parkersburg. He has given considerable attention to the breeding of pure bred livestock, chiefly horses. Judge Blizzard has been directly connected with the building of five fair grounds in West Virginia, the last one being at Parkersburg, said to be the best in the state. He was president of the Parkers- burg Fair Association for many years.

In politics he has always been a loyal republican. The five counties in the Sixth Judicial Circuit had a normal democratic majority of 1,372. In that circuit he was elected to the judgeship by 819 majority.

In 1904 Judge Blizzard was in the storm center of the politics of West Virginia. The late A. G. Dayton, W. P. Hubbard, George C. Sturgiss and Judge Blizzard were agreed upon as a committee to make recommendations to the Legislature for the enactment of laws after the storm produced by the report of the West Virginia Tax Com- mission.

As a member of this committee Judge Blizzard proposed many laws that had not been recommended by the tax com- mission and which were afterward enacted as laws by the Legislature. As a result, leaseholds for oil, gas and coal have been taxed ever since. The fees of state officers, and especially that of secretary of state, amounting to $60,000 per year, has been turned into the state treasury. Capitation taxes have been collected by the assessor when assessment is made. This has netted the state treasury something like $100,000 per year. In all, more money has been turned into the state treasury as a result of these recommendations than was turned in as a result of the recommendations of the State Tax Commission.

But the real character and public interest of the man was more clearly shown in the ownership and editorial manage- ment of the Parkersburg Dispatch News, a daily newspaper, than in any other phase of Judge Blizzard's life. It was in this that his independence and fearlessness were displayed in a most remarkable degree.

He was one of the earliest, if not the very earliest, pro- gressive republicans in West Virginia. As editor of the Parkersburg Dispatch News he was a most unwavering advo- cate of Roosevelt's principles and policies. In some matters he was in advance of Roosevelt. While he stoutly opposed strikes as a means of settling differences between capital and labor, he even contended that capital was worse than labor for making conditions which brought about strikes. His doctrine was that if the great body of the people knew that labor would not strike it would be much more friendly to labor, and that if labor would put into politics the money it put into strikes in properly setting itself before the public that it would, with the masses favoring it, be able to enact laws which would prevent capital from being unfair. He constantly proclaimed that the insignificant number of

Ruse Blizzard

HISTORY OF WEST VIRGINIA

capitalists and the small number of organized labor ought not to be permitted to disturb the great body of the people; and that the people, being disinterested and fair should make such laws as would prevent the great body of the public from being disturbed, harassed and injured by a fight between capitalists, composed by not more than five per cent of the people, and organized labor, constituting not more than fifteen per cent of the people. He urged that at the be- ginning of the existence of civilized man capital and labor began the settlement of their differences by the same method that two bullies employ by trying which are the stronger. It has settled nothing: it has constantly become worse. That the real solution of the problem is in eliminating the difference between capital and labor by making the great masses both capitalists and laborers. That there was no law, moral or divine, which of right would constitute one man a laborer and another a capitalist. That, without revo- lution or seriously disturbing business, and by a system of inheritance and income taxes, the enormously few estates of the country, composing ninety per cent of its wealth, could in twenty-five years redistribute ninety per cent of the wealth of the country; and that the money thus derived should be employed in paying all of the expenses of educa- cating all of the children of the country; and in the con- struction of our permanent public roads, thus relieving the masses of the great burden of taxation; that the same au- thority which voted out of existence the liquor power because it was against the public interest could, with the same license, redistribute the enormous holdings of the few, be- cause such holdings are against the public interest.

His first wife was Lillie Stump, who died in 1896. The four children by that union were Reese, Jr., Roy, Pearl and Ethel. Judge Blizzard then married Fannie Holland, and they have three children, named Paul, Pansy and Fannie. Two of his sons, Reese, Jr., and Paul, made creditable records during the World war, both seeing service abroad.

By a system of strenuous exercises and by using milk as the greater part of his diet, Judge Blizzard has rebuilt a constitution worn by work that, fifteen years ago, seriously threatened his life, and he is now a stronger and more rugged man and capable of performing much more labor than he has been since he was thirty years of age.

GEORGE M. FORD, state superintendent of free schools. was born at Kasson, Barbour County, West Virginia, Janu- ary 7, 1871. He attended the rural schools, the Fairmont State Normal School and the West Virginia University, graduating from the latter institution in 1892 with the de- gree of A. B., and in 1896 with the degree of LL. B. Since his graduation he has practiced law at Princeton, Mercer County, and at Welch, McDowell County, and has held school positions as follows: Principal of Terra Alta Pub- lic Schools, principal of Grafton High School, principal of Benwood graded and high schools, principal of the Concord State Normal School, head of the department of economics and American history, Marshall College; superintendent of Bluefield schools, including the rural schools of Beaver Pond District, Mercer County; superintendent of Brown's Creek School District, McDowell County; teacher in the State Normal School at Glenville and superintendent of Dunbar Schools, Dunbar, West Virginia.

On December 22, 1897, he married Miss Annie L. Linn, of Keyser, Mineral County. She was born at Frostburg, Allegheny County, Maryland, both of her parents being na- tives of Scotland. The four children of their marriage are: Margaret Buchanan, Jomima Elizabeth, Annie Laurie Linn and Frederick Wayne.

He comes from a family that has taken an active part with combatant forces in every military conflict waged in this country, including the French and Indian Wars. He is a son of Frederick G. W. and Jomima Elizabeth (Hebb) Ford. His father was born near Petersburg, Virginia, now in Grant County, West Virginia, and his mother, in Bar- bour County, West Virginia. His father was a soldier of the Union during the Civil war. He served with Company F, Fifteenth West Virginia Volunteer Infantry, as second lieutenant, first lieutenant and as captain.

George M. Ford began his military career May 12, 19II,

when he was commissioned captain in the Second Infantry, West Virginia National Guard. He organized that com- pany and had command of it during the first encampment held at Kanawha City, as a part of the Third Battalion. During that encampment he earned his reputation as an ex- pert rifleman, and has made a high rank in every conseen- tive practice since then. In July, 1912, the Third Battalion was called to Paint Creek in Kanawha County, for service in the momentous strike troubles that had begun a short time before. He commanded his company in the Cabin Creek mining district during this strike.

On December 1, 1914, he received a commission as major in the Adjutant General's Department, but resigned June 19, 1916, to again accept a captaincy in the Second lu- fantry, West Virginia National Guard, answering the call of the President for Mexican border service. He was as- signed to the command of Company M, and was stationed at Camp Wilson, San Antonio, from September, 1916, until he was mustered out of this service March 24, 1917, at

Huntington. On April 3, 1917, he answered the call of the President for World war service. The designation of his regiment was changed to the One Hundred and Fiftieth U. S. Infantry and attached to the Thirty-eight Division. His company was stationed at Marytown on the Norfolk and Western Railway until September, 1917, and in that month his regiment was mobilized with the Thirty-eighth Division at Camp Shelby, Mississippi, remaining there in training during the winter and following spring. In Sep- tember, 1918, Captain Ford took command of the Third Battalion of the One Hundred and Fiftieth Infantry and was transferred to France, going by way of Camp Mills, New York, to Liverpool and Southampton, landing at La Havre October 23, 1918. On November 3rd the infantry regiments of the Thirty-eighth Division were broken up and made replacement troops, and he was relieved of the command of his battalion and ordered to report to the Ninetieth Division, then in service on the front line in the Argonne. He reported at the village of Sassey sur Meuse and was assigned to the Three Hundred and Fifty-eightlı Infantry and immediately reported to Col. Edmund M. O'Leary at Mouzey, and was assigned to the command of B Company, then lying at LaBlanc Fontaine, one-half kilometer south of Stenay. On the night of November 9th, while under bombardment, Captain Ford was gassed at Verdun. Following the armistice he went with the Army of Occupation. His division headquarters were at Bern- castle on the Moselle River, regiment headquarters at Daun. In January, 1919, he was transferred to the Thirty-seventh Division, then under orders for return to the United States, and with this division he sailed from Brest the latter part of March, 1919, landing at Newport News April 2, 1919. He was honorably discharged from the United States Army at Camp Lee, Virginia, April 25, 1919, and two days later re- sumed work in the classroom as teacher in the State Nor- mal School at Glenville.

Captain Ford is affiliated with the Masonic Order, the Modern Woodmen of America and the Sigma Chi frater- nity.

In the primary election of May, 1920, he was chosen as the republican candidate for state superintendent of free schools. He was successful in the November election and entered upon the discharge of his duties, as state superin- tendent of free schools, on March 4, 192I.

At the annual meeting of the State Educational Associa- tion which convened in Huntington November 3rd to 5th, 1921, Superintendent Ford was elected president of the as- sociation, without opposition, for the ensuing year.

CAPT. SIMON C. BOORD. A distinctly modern profession, at the same time an indispensable asset to commercial or- ganizations and individual business men, is that of the certified public accountant. One of the best known in this profession in West Virginia is Capt. Simon C. Boord, of Fairmont, who is an especially well known expert on all phases of cost accounting and the coal and lumber industries.

Captain Boord was born at Farmington, Marion County, West Virginia, February 8, 1883, son of William and Alcinda (Snoderly) Boord. His parents were also born in Marion

HISTORY OF WEST VIRGINIA

County, each representing pioneer families in this section of the state. The mother now lives at Watson, West Virginia, where the father died in June, 1920.

Captain Boord spent his early life on a farm, but at the age of nine years, in 1892, his parents moved to Watson, where his father was in the service of the Gaston Gas Coal Company, now the Consolidation Coal Company.

Captain Boord attended public schools at Watson, the Fairmont State Normal School, and also began his working career with the Gaston Gas Coal Company at Watson. Later he was employed by the Fairmont Coal Company at Fairmont, then by the Federal Coal & Coke Company at Grant Town, West Virginia, and subsequently with the United States Coal & Coke Company (a subsidiary of the United States Steel Corporation) at Gary, West Virginia. Later he was employed as auditor for the Wisconsin Steel Company's coal and coke operations at Benham, Kentucky.

Captain Boord received most of his training in public accountancy from the Walton School of Commerce, Chicago, Illinois. In 1915 he located at Fairmont, and has since, with the exception of a portion of the war period, carried on an extensive practice as a public accountant. In 1917 he passed the C. P. A. examination and was given a license to practice as a certified public accountant. He has handled a large amount of difficult accounting problems for glass, coal and lumber corporations in this state.

In April, 1918, Captain Boord entered the government service as a civilian in the cost accounting branch of the Construction Division of the army, with headquarters at Washington. He had charge of all traveling cost accountants in that division, and was a member of the committee ap- pointed by Chief of Division to revise and rewrite the Cost Accounting Manual. November 7, 1918, he was com- missioned captain in the Quartermaster Corps and assigned to the Organization and Method Section of the administrative branch of the Construction Division, in which he continued until his discharge on December 26, 1918, after which he resumed his professional work at Fairmont.

In a professional way Captain Boord represented the Northern West Virginia coal operators in their hearing before the Federal Trade Commission on their petition for an increase in the selling price of their coal. He also repre- sented the Northern West Virginia operators in their hearing before the Bituminous Coal Commission appointed by Presi- dent Wilson. Captain Boord is a member of the National Association of Cost Accountants, and is a past president of the Association of Certified Public Accountants of West Virginia. He served three years as a member of the National Guard of this state, and is now a reserve captain in the Quartermaster Corps. He is a member of the American Legion, West Virginia Department. Captain Boord is affiliated with Fields Lodge No. 832, A. F. and A. M., at Poor Fork, Kentucky, is a member of the Kentucky Con- sistory of the Scottish Rite and Kosair Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Louisville.

FRANK BUTLER TROTTER, A. B., A. M. During an ex- tended period Frank Butler Trotter has been identified with the University of West Virginia at Morgantown, of which he has been president since 1916. In this time he has been known and highly regarded not only for his learn- ing, skill, executive ability and assiduity as an educator, but also for the urbanity of his manners, his literary taste and talent, and as a brilliant member of local social circles. It is the judgment of his co-laborers in the field of educa- tion in the retrospect of what he has accomplished that he has impressed himself upon the life and institutions of the community in a manner alike creditable to him- self and productive of lasting benefit to the people of the state.

President Trotter was born in Washington County, Ohio, February 27, 1863, a son of James and Elizabeth (Stock) Trotter. His paternal grandfather, Robert Trotter, a native of Ireland, immigrated to the United States in 1821 and settled first in the State of New York. Subsequently he went to Crawford County, Pennsylvania, and later re- moved to Ohio, locating first in Columbiana County and removing thence to Washington County, where he spent the remainder of his life. James Trotter, father of Doctor

Trotter, was born in Crawford County, Pennsylvania, March 14, 1827, and died at Aurora, West Virginia, May 26, 1914. He was but a boy when his parents removed from Pennsyl- vania to Ohio. The mother of Doctor Trotter was born in Columbiana County, Ohio, the daughter of Henry and Minerva Stock, who were of German descent.

Frank Butler Trotter was a boy of thirteen years when his parents removed to West Virginia. His early education was acquired in the common and private schools of Preston County, West Virginia, and he began teaching in the public schools of that county when he was in his twentieth year. He received his Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts de- grees from Roanoke College, Virginia, and did graduate work at Harvard. After teaching in public and private schools for a period of six years he became professor of Latin and modern languages at Wesleyan College, Buck- hannon. He was first professor of Latin at West Vir- ginia University, then dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, and from 1914 to 1916, acting president. He was clected president in 1916 and has occupied that posi- tion to the present.

While the strenuous times of the World war occurred during Doctor Trotter's administration, causing unsettled conditions generally, the university has grown in every re- spect, not only in the student enrollment, faculty member- ship and buildings, but also in additions to the curriculum, athletics and student activities. He is now rounding out his seventh year of service to the state. Within that time appropriations have increased from $360,000 in 1914 to nearly $3,000,000 in 1921. The enrollment has increased from 796 in 1915 to 2,248 in 1921, and the faculty has been enlarged from 122 in 1916 to 174 in 1921. Four new buildings have been added to the institution and three more are assured at this time. The university has become widely known throughout the state and greatly popularized among the people. The highest educational standards have been maintained and an unflagging responsibility assumed for safeguarding the character and inculcating the right ideals of the students.

Doctor Trotter has succeeded in connecting the university with the state as a whole and has extended the advantages of education to every citizen in even the most remote com- munities. This has been accomplished mainly through the high school, extension departments, teachers' institutes and the students themselves. Doctor Trotter has an ex- tensive acquaintance throughout the state and a broad knowledge of schools and school conditions. This knowl- edge was acquired partly through his position at Buck- hannon and partly through his former connection with the university as a member of the committee on classifica- tion and grades. As a guardian of the people's treasury, Doctor Trotter has shown remarkable ability to economize and to get full, faithful service out of his staff. Putting himself in the parents' place, he has assumed the responsi- bility of safeguarding the character of each and every student enrolled on the books of the institution. He has insisted upon the highest standards of scholarship and has demanded the best conditions of morality. A leading and active member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, Doctor Trotter was a delegate to the General Conference of that denomination during the years 1900, 1912 and 1916. He is a member of the Phi Beta Kappa and Phi Gamma Delta fraternities. Doctor Trotter, though a thorough educator, is much more than a professional drudge. His compre- hensive education, his wide acquaintance with literature and his social qualities have made him a favorite in so- ciety. He is an entertaining speaker, with a rich flow of humor, which makes him much sought for on occasions of public hospitality.

On August 22, 1895, Doctor Trotter was united in mar- riage with Miss Lillian List Steele.

FREDERICK ERNEST DELBRIDGE is secretary of the vari- ous Masonic bodies in the City of Clarksburg, Harrison County, with official headquarters in the local Masonic Temple. He was born at Bristol, England, August 2, 1868, and is a son of William and Ann (Luke) Delbridge, who came to the United States when he was a child of three

HISTORY OF WEST VIRGINIA

years and who established their home at Weston, Lewis County, West Virginia, whence they later removed to Shinnston, Harrison County. The son Frederick E. re- ceived his youthful education in the public schools of Shinnston, and as a youth he worked three years as an assistant to his father, a stonecutter by trade and voca- tion. He then turned his attention to learning telegraphy, and as a skilled telegraph operator he was employed several years in the Clarksburg office of the Western Union Tele- graph Company. He resigned this post to accept his present position as secretary of the various Masonic organi- zations in Clarksburg. The fine Masonic Temple in which he maintains his office was erected in 1913 by the Clarks- burg Masonic Building Company, a corporate organiza- tion formed hy local members of the Masonic fraternity. Mr. Delbridge has shown marked ability in handling the manifold details of his administrative work, which involves his service as secretary of the following named organiza- tions: Hermon Lodge No. 6, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, which was chartered in 1867 under the dispensa- tion of the Grand Lodge of West Virginia, but the original Virginia charter of which was obtained in 1814, its mem- bership in 1921 being 636; Clarksburg Lodge No. 155, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, which received its charter in 1919 and which now has a membership of 200; Adoniram Chapter No. 11, Royal Arch Masons, with Weat Virginia charter granted in 1873, but with original charter by the Grand Chapter of Virginia under date of December 15, 1871, its membership in 1921 being 574; Clarksburg Commandery No. 13, Knights Templars, which was chart- ered May 10, 1900, and which recorded in 1921 a member- ship of 465. In the local jurisdiction are also two Scottish Rite bodies that receive similar secretarial service on the part of Mr. Delbridge, these being Mizpah Lodge of Per- fection No. 5, chartered October 21, 1913, and having in 1921 an enrollment of 1,087 members; and Clarksburg Chapter No. 5, Knights of the Rose Croix, which, after working two years, received its charter October 20, 1921, its membership being 736. In addition to the local Masonic Club, of which Mr. Delbridge likewise is secretary, his indi- vidual affiliations run the full gamut of both the York and Scottish Rites, in the latter of which he has received the thirty-second degree, besides being a member of Nemesis Temple of the Mystic Shrine in the City of Parkersburg. He has been a close student of the history and teachings of the time-honored fraternity and finds great satisfaction in his various Masonic affiliations, as well as his adminis- trative service. He and his wife hold membership in the Presbyterian Church in their home city and are popular in the representative social circles of the community.

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 2

Author: Publication date: Publisher: Number of Pages:

Author:
Publication date:
Publisher:
Number of Pages: