History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 3, Part 212

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out between the two sections of the country he espoused the cause of the South, entered the Confederate Army and served during the four years of the conflict as a captain, under Capt. Leonadus Love. His death occurred at Barbers- ville, West Virginia. Both as a Baptist and a Mason he lived up to the highest ideals of Christian manhood, and was most highly respected by all who knew him.

Doctor Carter attended the common schools of Union until he was twelve years old, then was sent to the Anderson Presbyterian School for two terms, and next, when only thirteen years old, began working in a brick yard, where he was engaged in operating a steam engine. This yard made the bricks used in the construction of the Big Bee Tunnel. Here he continued to work during two summers, attending school in the winters in Cabell County, on the Guyan River, where his father was then employed. During the winter he was fifteen he attended the normal school at Milton, West Virginia, and after that, notwith- standing his youth, he taught school for the three succeed- ing winters, the first two winters the schools lasting four months and the last one was a six-months school. During the summers he worked in saw-mills, keeping fully occupied all of the time. In 1889 Doctor Carter began railroading, and was a brakeman for eleven months, then was made baggagemaster on trains, and held that position for one year. He was then made a conductor, and served as such until February, 1893, when he was able to realize an am- bition he had long held-the study of medicine. He and his wife had between them saved enough by this time to enable him to take the course at the Kentucky School of Medicine at Louisville, Kentucky, which is now a part of the University of Kentucky, and he was graduated therefrom in 1895, with the degree of Doctor of Medicine.

Immediately following his graduation Doctor Carter estab- lished himself in a general practice at Danville, where he has since remained, and from the start he has been very successful. In 1897 he went to the New York Polyclinic and took up post-graduate work; also did post-graduate work in 1905 at the University of Louisville; and in 1918, at the Polyclinic of New Orleans, Louisiana. He devotes most of his time to surgery, although the demand for his services is so great that he is still compelled to carry on a general practice. It is his desire, however, to specialize on surgery. In December, 1920, Doctor Carter organized the Danville Hospital Corporation, under the laws of West Virginia, which is the best-equipped hospital in the state outside of Charleston. Doctor Carter is president of the corporation; Dr. J. O. Williams is resident doctor of medicine; Dr. E. W. Smith is assistant resident physician, and all of the physicians and surgeons of Madison are members of the visiting staff.

Doctor Carter has rendered a valuable public service in many ways. During the late war he was a member of the Board of Medical Examiners, and devoted much of his time to the work of this board. He was president of all of the local committees on the selling of the Liberty Bonds, and in every other way possible did everything in his power to assist the administration to carry out its policies. During 1899 and 1901 he served in the West Virginia Legislature, and during his terms in that body gave his active support to many important measures which have since become laws. A natural machinist, he set up the first mowing machine in this county, as well as the first two reapers and binders, and has never lost his liking for mechanical work.

In 1892 Doctor Carter married at Madison Miss May E. Hopkins, a daughter of Henry and Julia Hopkins, both of whom were born and reared in West Virginia. Mrs. Carter is a highly-educated lady, and prior to her marriage was a school teacher. She entered fully into her husband's aspirations toward a professional life, and not only en- couraged him, but gave him material assistance as well, and he feels that much of his present success is primarily due to her and her unselfish efforts in his behalf. Doctor and Mrs. Carter became the parents of three children, namely : Carr C., Lyle H. and Frank, but the last named died in 1918. aged thirteen years. The two older sons served during the World war.

The Baptist Church holds the membership of Doctor

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Carter and his family, and they are all zealous church workers. He is a Knight Templar Mason, and was the first worshipful master of Odell Lodge No. 115, A. F. and A. M. He is also a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and was one of those to sign the petition for the Danville lodge. It is safe to say that no measure of im- portance has come before the people of the county since he became a resident of it that has not received careful and conscientious attention from Doctor Carter, and it is equally true that few have been carried to successful com- pletion without his approval, for his fellow citizens have implicit trust in his good faith and sound judgment, and realize that if he decides against anything he has very good reasons for doing so. They are just as determined to fol- low his lead when he advises action of a favorable character, and he is the father of some of the most constructive move- ments in this part of the state.

JAMES H. FORD finished his education after he had been recruited in the service of West Virginia's greatest industry, coal mining. His experience began at the bottom, and from an employe he has promoted himself into the ranks of the operators. He is general manager and treasurer of the Buffalo Eagle Collieries Company at Braeholm in Logan County.

The president of this company is P. J. Riley of Barbours- ville. Operations were started in 1914, and since then the mines have been opened and the company has installed its own power plant. It is the only mine in the Logan field similarly equipped. Around the mines the company has built an ideal town, with schools and churches and attractive homes for mine workers. The railroad station is Becco, a name made up of the initials of the company.

Mr. Ford was born on his father's farm at Maplewood in Fayette County, June 18. 1881, a son of W. A. and Georgia A. Ford, who are still living on their farm at the ages of seventy-eight. Their family consisted of four sons and two daughters.

James H. Ford acquired his early education in the schools of Fayette County, and taught three terms of school. He finished his education with a two year course in college at Richmond, Virginia. In 1905 Mr. Ford became a coal loader for the Piney Mining Company on Loop Creek, and was employed there about a year before he went away to college. After returning he was in the service of the New River and Pocahontas Coal Company at Layland as script clerk, later as bookkeeper, and remained with them three years. For a time he had his headquarters at Charleston, as auditor for the West Virginia properties of the corpora- tion. He left there in 1914 and came to the Logan field, and has been here from the beginning of the development work for the Buffalo Eagle Collieries Company to the present time.

In September, 1915, he married Theresa Riley, danghter of P. J. Riley, of Barboursville, who is president of the coal company. Mr. and Mrs. Ford have two children, James H., Jr., and Joseph Martin. Mrs. Ford is a member of the Catholic Church. Mr. Ford is affiliated with Laurel Lodge, F. and A. M., at Fayette, the Elks, belongs to the Royal Arch Chapter of Masonry at Hinton, Huntington Com- mandery of Knights Templars and the Mystic Shrine at Charleston. He is a democrat in politics.

RALPH R. HAMILTON is one of the prominent mine super- intendents of Logan County, being superintendent of the Merrill Coal Mines, Incorporated, at Henlawson. These mines are operated by a Virginia corporation which was organized in the summer of 1920. The company did a great deal of development work preparatory to the opening and operating of the mines. This work included the erection of the steel bridge across the Guyandotte River, also three miles of railroad and over a mile of tramroad. Modern equipment was installed for the operation of the mines. The first coal was shipped in February, 1921, and in spite of the general depression there has not been a single interruption to the work of the mines except on days when the electric power was off or a supply of cars could not be obtained. The daily output is now a trainload.

Mr. Hamilton, the superintendent, was born April 6, 1890, on his father's farm in Nicholas County, West Virginia, son of Andrew A. and Emma (Miller) Hamilton. His father has been a farmer, and the parents still live at the old homestead, Andrew at the age of sixty and his wife, at fifty. He had few opportunities during his youth but has educated himself and is well read. He is a trustee of the Baptist Church. In this family were five sons and two daughters. The sons are: Edgar, now in California, Owen, Ralph R., Ray and Lee. All of them and three cousins of the same name are members of Summerville Lodge No. 76 of the Masonic Order.

Ralph R. Hamilton attended school at Summerville, and at the age of nineteen became a teacher. He soon left that occupation and at twenty was pay roll clerk for the Standard Island Creek Coal Company at Cora in Logan County. During the eight years he remained with that corporation he was advanced to the larger responsibilities, being promoted from pay roll clerk to superintendent. For a short time he was superintendent of the Daisy Mine for the same company, just before taking charge of the Merrill Mine. Mr. Hamilton has done more than follow the routine of a practical miner and mine superintendent. He has studied the technical part of the business, has taken courses with the International Correspondence Schools, and is thoroughly informed on the technical side of the mining industry.

In September. 1921, he married Miss Louise Akers, daughter of P. H. and Sidney Akers. She was a member of the Baptist Church. Mr. Hamilton is affiliated with Logan Chapter, R. A. M., Huntington Commandery, K. T., the Rose Croix and Lodge of Perfection, degrees of the Scottish Rite at Huntington and the Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Charleston. In politics he is a democrat.

LATHROP RUSSELL CHARTER, M. D. A professional serv- ice of over sixty years and the relationship of a kindly and helpful citizen explain the grateful memory in which the late Doctor Charter is held in the community of West Union and Doddridge County. It is significant in his case and that of other similarly useful men that no long hiography can be presented. since his life was a long succession of the acts of kindness incident to a working routine that varied only in detail, not in general character.

Doctor Charter, was born at Springfield, Massachusetts, October 10, 1816 of an old Connecticut family. His grand- father, John Charter. Jr., married Sarah Russell in 1777, and both were listed in the first census of the United States made in 1790. John Charter, Jr., served in a Lexington Alarm Regiment at the beginning of the Revo- lutionary war. He and his wife were the parents of nine children. The father of Doctor Charter was Lemuel Char- ter, who was born at Ellington, Tolland County, Connecticut, May 7, 1784, and died at Elwood, Illinois, October 20, 1862. The mother, Elizabeth Allen, was born at East Wind- sor, Connecticut, November 8, 1789, and died at Elwood, Illinois, February 11, 1870.

Lathrop Russell Charter lived at Springfield until he was eighteen years of age and then for one year was employed at Hartford, Connecticut. In the meantime his parents removed to Otsego County, New York, and when he re- joined his parents he engaged in teaching. He was liberally educated for his time and generation. He taught nine terms of school and in the meantime read medicine with Doctors Curtis and Johnson of Cooperstown, New York. One of his cherished memories of this period of his life was the friendship he formed with James Fenimore Cooper, the American novelist. During 1840-41 Doctor Charter attended medical lectures at Albany, New York, and then at Wood- stock, Vermont, where he was graduated in 1841. One of the signers of his diploma of graduation from the College of Medicine at Woodstock was H. H. Childs, at that time president of the college and later a governor of Massa- chusetts. Doctor Charter subsequently took a medical course at Pittsfield, Massachusetts.

In the Fall of 1841 he began the practice of medicine at Guilford, New York, and two years later removed to Alleghany County of the same state. In the fall of 1845

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he came to West Union, West Virginia, and a few months later went back to bring his family, making these three trips in a buggy. Through his liberal education and high attainment, soon after locating at West Union, he had all the work he could do as a physician and surgeon over a wide expanse of country around that town.

He performed his professional labors at a time when none of the modern facilities were available, such as good roads, the telephone, the corner drug store, but he was a very conscientious doctor and many a time when called out to attend the sick drove miles over the hardest kind of roads and in inclement weather, never giving the matter of remuneration a thought. The manner in which he en- dured the hardships of his work and his true loyalty to all professional obligations indicated that he drew heavily from those inner resources of manhood that are the foundation of religion. He was one of the founders of the Methodist Episcopal Church at West Union and for many years was a generous supporter of the church and its program of activities. In politics he was a democrat.

He was the third superintendent of schools in Doddridge County. He also officiated as mayor of West Union, as magistrate, United States Commissioner and for fifteen years was United States Pension Examiner. He was emin- ently successful as a physician, and became a charter mnem- ber of the West Virginia Medical Society and a member of the American Medical Association. At the time of his death he was the oldest member of each of these bodies.

Doctor Charter died September 28, 1909, in his ninety- third year. His was a long life, and his usefulness con- tinued almost until the hour of his death.

Doctor Charter was twice married. In New York on October 12, 1843, he married Miss Lucia M. Hale, who died February 9, 1867. Six children were born to this union, the four surviving the father being A. J. Charter, Dr. J. H. Charter, Mrs. Joseph Brown and C. A. Charter. On Nov- ember 10, 1870, Doctor Charter married Elizabeth Fraser, who survives him at the age of seventy-seven. She became the mother of six children, five now living: Florence, un- married; Lucia, wife of G. W. Bland and the mother of two children: Elizabeth B., wife of Ray Staley, and Russell C. Bland; Lathrop R., Jr .; Tula, unmarried; and James G., also unmarried.

LATHROP RUSSELL CHARTER, JR., son of the late Dr. Lathrop R. and Elizabeth (Fraser) Charter, was born at West Union, January 11, 1875. He acquired a liberal edu- cation in the public schools and in West Virginia University, where he graduated A. B. in 1900.

For over twenty years he has been identified with banking in Doddridge County. He became cashier of the newly or- ganized Doddridge County Bank at West Union, and has heen in the service of that institution, of which he is now president. Mr. Charter is a republican in politics, and has een a loyal citizen in every phase of the development of West Union.

In 1910 he married Miss Mabel Taylor, who died in 1913.

WILLIAM E. MOHLER. A pioneer lumber operator in Kanawha County, William E. Mohler's name has become associated with a varied and remarkable program of in- dustrial and financial enterprise at St. Albans, his home town, and throughout this region.

Mr. Mohler was born in Augusta County, Virginia, July 14, 1852, son of D. F. and Ellen E. (Silling) Mohler. His father was born in Augusta County about 1832, and died at the age of sixty-seven. He was a wagon contractor for the Confederate Government during the first two years of the Civil war. He was connected with iron manufacture, and he owned the second sawmill in Augusta County. His wife, Ellen, was a daughter of William Silling.

The oldest of nine children, William E. Mohler attended school in Virginia and became associated with his father in the lumber industry. At the age of twenty-one he began operating for himself at Alderson in Monroe County, West Virginia. March 28, 1882, just forty years ago, Mr. Mohler located at St. Albans in Kanawha County, and with his two brothers started the lumbering business which grew to be one of the largest in this section of the state. Their mills

for a number of years were supplied by logs from Boone, Raleigh and Logan counties. In 1888, with his father and brothers, he built a saw mill at Lock Seven in Kanawha County. It was the chief property of the Mohler Lumber Company, of which Mr. Mohler is president, though he has been retired from its active management since May 1, 1918. In addition to his lumber mills he has had a part in nearly every industrial movement in his community. He erected several properties at St. Albans. He was one of the in- corporators of the St. Albans Glass Company in 1914, and has since been its president. He helped organize the Bank of St. Albans, of which he is vice president and director. He is a director in the Virginian Joint Stock Land Bank and in the West Virginia Mortgage and Discount Corpora- tion at Charleston. The Mohler Realty Company, a sub- sidiary of the Mohler Lumber Company, has developed a high class sub-division of West Charleston, the property thoroughly improved with sidewalks, sewers and water lines before it was put on the market. The Mohler Lumber Company still owns 7,000 acres on Coal River, and this land is now being operated by six producing coal companies. The Coal River Railroad, running four miles through the property makes this property accessible for the product of coal mines now producing and under construction. The land now being developed for coal was the last property lumbered off by the Mohler Company. Mr. Mohler is a stockholder in the Boone County Bank at Madison, also in the Kanawha National Bank at Charleston, and was presi- dent and general manager of the St. Albans Light aud Water Company and president of the McGregor Manufac- turing Company. He has also been a director in the South Side Foundry and Machine Company at Charleston, presi- dent of the St. Albans Building Company, director of the Herald Publishing Company of St. Albans and stockholder of the Pinaguio Mines Company in old Mexico and the Mexico Mill and Transportation Company.

Mr. Mohler has been active in local affairs, serving on the City Council. He is a republican. He married Jennie A. Reeves, of Augusta County, Virginia. She died in 1905. Her three children were: Reba R., wife of Don Here- ford, of Oklahoma City; Daniel N., the well known attorney at Charleston, whose career is given elsewhere; and Ruth E., now the wife of Capt. Walter C. Phillips, of the U. S. Army. In 1908 W. E. Mohler married Mary E. Alex- ander, sister of Judge Alexander of Putnam County. Mr. Mohler is an elder in the Presbyterian Church of St. Albans.

MERRITT WILSON has devoted all the active years of his experience to the lumber industry, and the scene of his operations as a timber and saw mill operator has been in West Virginia for a number of years. Mr. Wilson has his home at Elkins and is active head of several large lumber companies.

He was born near Wilson in Allegany County, Mary- land, December 7, 1866. The village of Wilson is now in Garrett County. His paternal ancestors have been in America nearly two centuries. The founder of the family was Thomas Wilson who came from the North of Ireland about 1732 to Nova Scotia and subsequently settled in Frederick County, Maryland. He married Elizabeth Riley. Their son, Thomas, born in 1741, lived near Cresaptown in Allegany County, Maryland, and participated as a soldier in a number of the border wars. He married Mary Hayes. Their son, also named Thomas, was born in 1777, and lived at what is now Kitzmiller, Garrett County, Maryland. He was owner and operator of a mill, was also a practical surveyor, and was a noted hunter. He married Susan Bow- man. Their son, James, became a farmer, living near the present site of Kitzmiller, and married Lucinda Junkins.

George W. Wilson, father of Merritt Wilson, was a son of James and Lucinda (Junkins) Wilson, and during the Civil war served as a first lieutenant in the Third West Virginia Cavalry in the Union Army. After leaving the army he became interested in farming and also was a lumber manufacturer at Wilson, Maryland. This career also took him into public affairs, and he served three terms in the Maryland Legislature. His wife was Eliza Harvey.

RESIDENCE OF W. E. MOHLER, "HILL GROVE," ST. ALBANS, WEST VIRGINIA

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Merritt Wilson completed a common school education in Garrett County, had a business course in Bridgewater Col- ege in Virginia, and at the age of twenty-three entered his father's store and office at Wilson, and had a varied ·outine as bookkeeper, clerk and also handling the railroad office work for West Virginia Central Railway. His father lied in December 1894, leaving the business to the family. His training and experience well qualified him to become resident and general manager of the Wilson Lumber Com- any which the family organized to conduct and continue .he business. In 1900 the manufacturing plant was moved 'rom Wilson to Fairfax, and in 1903 the Wildell Lumber Company was organized, and a large tract of timber was purchased in Pocahontas County, West Virginia.

In the fall of 1903 Mr. Wilson removed to Wildell, the ndustrial town established by the company, and he took personal charge of the enterprise. He continued to manage he business there until the timber was exhausted in 1916, und since then his home has been in Elkins.

Mr. Wilson is president of the Wilson Lumber Company, he Wildell Lumber Company and the Ruthbell Lumber Com- any, and is also president of the Inter-Mountain Coal and Lumber Company, an organization owning and controlling a arge coal and lumber property in Kentucky. He is a lirector in the Marlin Lumber Company, a director in the Bank of Mill Creek, the Peoples National Bank, Elkins, and las extensive interests in farming and live stock. He is president of the Central West Virginia Fire Protective Asso- iation, an association organized for the purpose of pro- ecting the forests of that part of the state from fire and eforesting the cutover lands.

As was true of his father, Mr. Wilson has always com- ined an intelligent interest in public affairs with his busi- less. He served as a presidential elector in the Sixth Con- rressional District of Maryland the first time Mckinley ran For President. He has always been a republican, and in 899 was elected a member of the Maryland Legislature, erving in the session of 1900 and the extra session of 1901. Mr. Wilson is a member of the Elkins Rotary Club and Country Club.

October 29, 1895, he married Miss Forest D. Wolfe, laughter of Francis S. and Jennie Wolfe, of McArthur, )hio. Their three children are, Frank E., Curtis R., and Merritt Wilson, Jr.

EDWARD GRANDISON SMITH. In the practice of law, it las been said, many men seek to find the necessary stepping stone to other vocations, but the true lover of his pro- ession starts out with no such object in view. He finds n it an inspiration, and a congenial, satisfying situation hat is sufficiently useful, honorable, responsible and re- nunerative. Such, perhaps, may be the attitude of Edward 1. Smith, recognized as one of the ablest members of the Clarksburg bar who, for almost thirty years has devoted himself exclusively to the practice of law at Clarksburg, nany times during this interval declining public honors and urning aside tentative offers of change.

Mr. Smith is a native of West Virginia and of old Harri- son County stock. He was born on Horse Run, Harrison County, April 8, 1868, and is a son of Thomas Marion and Amy Minerva (Hoff) Smith, and a namesake nephew of Capt. Edward Grandison Smith, who served in the 17th Virginia cavalry in the war between the states. Thomas Marion Smith was born in Harrison County, February 24, 1845, a son of Charles and Mary (Grant) Smith. Charles Smith was born November 3, 1796, the first white child born n Duck Creek, Harrison County, and was a son of Watters ind Elizabeth (Davisson) Smith, the former of whom was born in New Jersey, July 15, 1767. He married in 1793 and n 1796 came to Harrison County and settled on Duck Creek, where he bought a farm from John Prunty. His parents were Thomas and Sarah (Green) Smith, the former of whom was born in England, May 23, 1743, and came o America in 1760, married the second child of Joseph Green, son of William Green, in 1764, and settled near Trenton, New Jersey. He served as a soldier in the Revo- utionary war, later was a farmer and died October 17, 1799. His son Watters was also a farmer and a man of sterling

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History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 3, Part 212

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