History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 3, Part 25

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For several terms he was a member of the City Council He was elected high sheriff in November, 1920, and begar his four year term January 1, 1921. His election was ir the nature of a personal triumph. In that year even old time democratic strongholds went republican. Pleasant: County gave the republican ticket an average majority of 225, but Mr. Ruttencutter was chosen sheriff by a margin of 125 votes. He is a member of the Baptist Church, assis- tant superintendent of the Sunday School, is affiliated with St. Marys Lodge No. 41, A. F. and A. M., Sistersville Chapter No. 27, R. A. M., Mountain State Commandery No. 14 K. T., West Virginia Consistory No. 1, Scottish Rite, at Wheeling, St. Marys Chapter No. 31 of the Eastern Star, and Nemesis Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Parkersburg,

Hendrickson_

HISTORY OF WEST VIRGINIA

He also belongs to St. Marya Lodge No. 22, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and St. Marys Tent No. 20, Knights f the Maccabees. During the war Mr. Ruttencutter had harge of all the Red Cross drives in his district, and assumed he responsibility of seeing that these drives filled the quota nd was equally interested in the success of the Liberty Loan nd other campaigns.

Mr. Ruttencutter owns one of the substantial homes of St. Mary's. on Creel Street. He married in 1901 Miss Lida Walton, daughter of John and Lida (Le Bearon) Walton, the atter now deceased. Her father lives at Pittsburg, is a teamboat engineer, and well known among Ohio River men. Sheriff and Mrs. Ruttencutter have two children. Lucille, orn in December, 1902, is a graduate of the St. Marys High School and now a sophomore in West Virginia University. Charles Abraham, born in July, 1907, is a junior in the high chool.

DANIEL PIERCE HENDRICKSON, a native of Grant County, West Virginia, when young became Clerk of the Courts of frant County, in the year 1880, and served continuously as Clerk of the Circuit and County Courts of the County until January 1st, 1921.

He has held several other public offices, and has been onnected with many of the business interests of the ounty.

T. TOWNSON HALL was born on a farm on which standa oday the thriving village of Auburn, Ritchie County, the ate of his nativity having been March 13, 1855. It is nteresting to record that he is now one the representative xponents of farm industry in his native county and that he s president of the Auburn Exchange Bank, to the executive ffairs of which he gives much of his time.

Mr. Hall is a son of E. M. and Tacy J. (Jeffrey) Hall, the ormer of whom was born September 1, 1829, and the latter February 28, 1833, at West Union, Doddridge County. C. M. Hall was a boy at the time of his parents' removal to Ritchie County, where his early education was gained in the ubscription schools. His wife was reared and educated n Doddridge County, and after their marriage they resided or a number of years on a farm in that county. Mr. Hall hen became a progressive farmer in Ritchie County, and also onducted a general store at, Auburn. After selling his atore e passed the remainder of his life on his farm, he having ecome the owner of a fine estate of 200 acres and having een a leader in agricultural and live-stock industry in Ritchie County. He and his wife were zealous members of he Baptist Church, in which he was a local minister, and his political support was given to the democratic party. Of heir fine family of twelve children only three are living in 922, and of this number the subject of this review is the Idest; William F. is a resident of Fort Collins, Colorado; joseph S. is a successful ranchman and banker in the State f Colorado; and Tacy, who was the wife of Jerome Brake, f Harrisville, Ritchie County, died March 25, 1922.

J. Townson Hall remained at the parental home until he ad attained his legal majority, and in the meanwhile he ad made good use of his educational advantages, as shown y the fact that he was successfully engaged in teaching in he rural schools for four terms. He has continued as a suc- essful representative of farm enterprise in his native county nd is the owner of a well improved farm of 200 acres-the ld homestead on which he passed his childhood and youth. He has been actively concerned in the upbuilding of the ubstantial business of the Auburn Exchange Bank, of which he was one of the organizers and of which he is the president. Though loyal and public-spirited and a staunch advocate of he principles of the democratic party, Mr. Hall has had no lesire for public office of any kind. He and his wife are ctive members of the Baptist Church at Auburn.

In April, 1877, Mr. Hall wedded Miss Amanda V. Ward, who was born on a farm in the Bonecreek District of Ritchie County, December 7, 1853, a daughter of Martin C. and Mary . (Gaston) Ward. Mr. and Mrs. Hall have five children. . Guy who resides with his parents, has one son, Arza, and he maiden name of his wife was Edith Wade. Lyda is the wife of Charles Acklin, and they reside in the State of Colo- ado. They have two children, Theodore and Wesley. Porter

F. livea on a farm in Colorado. Alma ia the wife of Jamea Dalton and they also reside on a farm in Colorado. They have four children living, Arnold, Herbert, Le Roy and Mona. They also had a little daughter, Lola, who was drowned at the age of eighteen months. Carr, who married Nerdie Bernard, lives in Gilmer County, West Virginia.

JOHN GABRIEL JACOB. In that unlimited usefulness exercised by a newspaper publisher and editor, and only less as a business man, John Gabriel Jacob was one of the most prominent members of the Jacob family at Wellsburg. The pioneer settlement and achievements of the family group as a whole are described in other sketches in this publication. The American ancestor of the family was John Jacob, Sr., who came from the Isle of Wight to Maryland about 1665, and who died October 26, 1702.

John Gabriel Jacob, who was born at Wellsburg, October 1, 1826, was the oldest son of Samuel and Mary Ann (Shryer) Jacob. His father was a farmer, a noted raiser of fine sheep and cattle, owning a large farm one half mile east of Wells- burg. He was cashier of the Wellsburg National Bank for over forty years.

John G. Jacob was educated in Washington College at Washington, Pennsylvania. He graduated with the class of 1847, a class somewhat famous on account of the number of its members who afterward became prominent, one of them being James G. Blaine. Soon after graduation John G. Jacob made a trip to New Orleans, floating down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers by flat boat loaded with goods produced in this section. On reaching New Orleans he sold his stock and the flat boat at a good profit and returned by steamboat to Wellsburg, after resisting a strong temptation to continue his trip to the gold fields of California, where the first discoveries had been made and which were attracting nearly every young man of adventuresome disposition who could get away from the routine of the East. With the pro- ceeds of his flat boat venture John G. Jacob purchased a half interest in the Wellsburg Transcript, a newspaper then owned by Metcalf & Smith. Only a short time later, in 1849, Mr. Jacob, with the aid of his father, bought the remainder, chang- ing the name to the Wellsburg Herald, under which name he edited and published it for nearly fifty years. He was an able and fearless writer, and in the period immediately pre- ceding the Civil war his editorials had a far reaching influence. He was an ardent abolitionist, and his editorials in a news- paper published in slave territory were widely copied. Through his newspaper he had much to do with molding sentiment and bolding the people of his section loyal to the Union.

John G. Jacob as an editor warmly espoused the cause of Abraham Lincoln as candidate for the President, and was a delegate to the convention at Chicago which nominated the great emancipator in 1860. He served on the committee on credentials as the representative of the Virginia delega- tion. He was a supporter of all public improvements, especially of the substantial sort, and could always be found on the right side on all moral questions. He was an early advocate of prohibition of the manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquors, and for many years his paper bore at the head of its editorial column the inscription "An Inde- pendent Republican Newspaper favoring prohibition."

In 1895 Mr. Jacob relinquished active control of the Herald, turning it over to his son and retiring to his suburban home, but still retaining his active interest in local affairs as well as in the broader affairs of the state and nation.

In October, 1903, at the age of seventy-seven, Mr. Jacob died from an attack of pneumonia, and two days later his remains were laid beside those of his beloved wife, who had preceded him in death just ten days before.

CARL KELLEY JACOB, Wellsburg lawyer and former mem- ber of the West Virginia Legislature, is one of the younger representatives of this distinguished family of the Upper Panhandle of the state. He is a grandson of Samuel Jacob, who was born in 1802 and lived in Wellsburg from the age of sixteen. In 1832 the Wellsburg Bank was organized as a branch of the old Bank of Northwestern Virginia, and he became its cashier and served in that capacity for over forty yeara, being with the institution when it acquired one

HISTORY OF WEST VIRGINIA

of the first national charters in the state. While his interests were centered in the bank, he made his home on his farm a mile from Wellsburg. Rose Hill farm comprised six hundred acres, and was the breeding ground of Merino sheep and Shorthorn cattle. He died there in 1884, at the age of eighty-two.

Samuel Jacob married Mary Ann Shryer, and they were the parents of three sons. A separate sketch appears of the oldest, John G. Jacob, the veteran publisher of the Wellsburg Herald. The youngest was Zachariah, who was cashier of the Wellsburg National Bank until his death in 1905.

The second son was Daniel F. Jacob, who was born at Wellsburg June 15, 1832, and lived all his life in that city, where he died July 31, 1921, when in his ninetieth year. Quite early in his career he took part of his father's stock farm, became owner of most of it, and lived there, continuing the breeding and raising of sheep as long as that was a profitable industry. He was a republican, never held a public office, and was an active member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. He married Lydia Kelley, who died when her youngest son, Carl Kelley, was an infant. There were two other sons, Samuel, who died at the age of eighteen, and Daniel F., Jr., who is still at the old homestead.

Carl Kelley Jacob was born near West Liberty, West Virginia, and he was reared by his aunt, Susan Jacob, on the old farm. He graduated from Washington and Jefferson College with the class of 1895, received his law degree at West Virginia University in 1899, and has been one of the busy attor- neys at Wellsburg for over twenty years. He has served as city solicitor since 1904. He is a director and chairman of the finance committee of the Wellsburg National Bank, an insti- tution in which the family had been interested since it was started in 1832. Mr. Jacob in 1907 served as a member of the State Legislature, representing Brooke Connty, and among other committees was a member of the cities and towns committee.

He married Miss Bertha Jones, daughter of William Jones, of Wheeling. Their three children arc: Bettie, Helen and Bertha.

WILLIAM PINCKNEY HALLER thongh only forty years of age has had an almost continuous association and worked in connection with the coal mining and other industrial affairs of Southern West Virginia for nearly thirty years. He is especially well known in Mercer County, being auditor of the Matoaka Electric Power Company, of the Pawama, the Algonquin and Wright Coal Companies, his home and business headquarters being in the village of Matoaka.

Mr. Haller was born at Huntington, West Virginia, Feh- ruary 5, 1882, son of William J. and Margaret (Hat- field) Haller. His father, who died in 1912 at the age of fifty-eight, entered the employ of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad Company as a young man in the capacity of telegraph operator at Hawk's Nest. Subsequently he joined the motive power department, was promoted to master mechanic, and at intervals served in that capacity at Richmond, Huntington and Cincinnati. For a time he was master mechanic of the Illinois Central Railroad with headquarters at Memphis. William J. Haller was a demo- crat in politics, for many years enjoyed membership in the Masonic fraternity and belongs to the Protestant Episcopal Church. He was born at Wytheville, Virginia, son of Dr. William P. Haller. Mrs. Margaret (Hatfield ) Haller was born at Barboursville, West Virginia, and continues to reside at Huntington. She is an earnest communicant of the Protestant Episcopal Church. Of her three living children the oldest is John J., an employe of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad Company at Hunt- ington. The only daughter is Mrs. W. T. Smith of Hunt- ington.

William P. Haller acquired liis public school ednca- tion at Huntington and Kenova, West Virginia, and at Memphis, Tennessee. When he was twelve years old he went to work in the offices of the Norfolk and Western Railroad at Kenova. A year later he was assigned to clerical work in the coal fields. For a time he had charge of supplies for the Pond Creek and Island Creek Coal Companies, during the period of construction work in 1908. Since 1915 his home has been at Matoaka. In addi- tion to being anditor of the Matoaka Electric Power Com-

pany and the coal company above mentioned, he is asso ciated with the Mutual Building & Investment Company the Odd Fellows Building Corporation and the Matoak Cemetery Company. He has served as secretary-treasure of the Matoaka Board of Trade and the Matoaka Busines Men's Club, and in 1919, he gave a very vigorous and progressive administration as mayor of this little industria city.

Mr. Haller is a democrat, is a member of the Protes tant Episcopal Church, and is affiliated with Bailey Lodg No. 137, F. and A. M. at. Rock, West Virginia, he being Royal Arch Mason, a member of Athens Chapter No. 2 Athens, West Virginia, is a past chancellor commande and keeper of records and seals of the Knights of Pythia and is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellow and the Loyal Order of Moose.

In 1909 he married Miss Marie Tuma Curtin, danghter o: Patrick Curtin of Wytheville, Virginia. They have on son and three daughters.

AUGUST N. POWERS. One of the interesting industrie of West Virginia is the St. Marys Pearl Button Company located in Pleasants County. The superintendent of th: industry is August N. Powers, who has had a wide experienc in gathering the raw material and in manufacturing pear button stock, and came to West Virginia from his nativ state of Indiana. He was born at Rockport, Indiana, Augns 17, 1887. In the paternal line his ancestry originated i England and settled in old Virginia in Colonial times. Hi grandfather, Isaac Newton Powers, was born in Virginia i 1833, but spent nearly all his active life as a farmer in Warric and Spencer counties in Southern Indiana. He serve throughout the Civil war on the Union side, He died a Tennyson, Indiana, in 1905. His son, William Powers, wa born in Warrick Connty in 1865, lived during his youth i that and in Spencer Connty, and then went to Rockport Indiana, where he married and for many years owned an operated a grist mill and a grocery store. He has live retired since 1909. In politics he is a democrat. Williar Powers married Pauline Kline, who was born in New Yor City in 1869. They have two children, August N. an Elizabeth Hannah. The latter is the wife of Stanley I Murray, owner of a button factory at Rockport, Indiana but widely known all over the United States for his breedin kennels, where he breeds full blooded Pointers.

August N. Powers was educated at Rockport, attendin the high school during the Junior year. He left school i: 1906 and for five seasons played professional baseball. H was a star pitcher in the Virginia League, Kansas State Leagu and Blue Grass League. For one year he did work with surveying crew in Indiana, and then became associated with the Dalton Adding Machine Company in the milling and drill ing department at Poplar Bluff, Missouri. After a year an a half in the factory he spent another year in Cincinnati fo the same firm.

Mr. Powers took up the button industry in 1915 with the Harvey Chalmers & Sons Company. He was on the road as purchaser of raw material for this company a year and half, traveling out of Rockport, Indiana, and covering th principal sources of supply through Southern Illinois, Souther Indiana, Western Kentucky and portions of Tennessee Following that for six months Mr. Powers conducted a button factory of his own at Rockport, Indiana, and in 1917 cam to St. Marys, West Virginia, to accept his post as superin tendent of the Pearl Button Company. The plant and office of this company are in the north end of town, along the Balti more & Ohio Railway. Gathering their raw materials from a large section of country, they manufacture pearl buttor blanks, which are shipped entirely to button factories a Amsterdam, New York. A valnable by-product is crushed shells for poultry and agricultural lime, and this materia is shipped all over the United States. It is a business em ploying a hundred and ten hands, and is one of the prominen assets of St. Marys industrial prosperity.

Mr. Powers votes as a democrat, is a trustee of the Pres byterian church, is a member of the Independent Order of Foresters at St. Marys, St. Marys Chapter No. 31 of the Eastern Star, and at Rockport, Indiana, has membership ir Spencer Lodge No. 112, F. and A. M., Rockport Lodge Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and the Encampment

HISTORY OF WEST VIRGINIA

degree and the Rebekahs. He is a member of the Commercial Travelera of Utica, New York, and ia firat vice president of St. Marya Board of Trade.

In 1917, at Rockport, Mr. Powera married Miss Estella Pearl Connor, daughter of Charlea C. and Anna (McDaniel) Connor, residents of Rockport, where her father ia auper- intendent of the Rockport Pearl Button Company. Mr and Mrs. Powers have one daughter, Dorothy Connor, born July 8, 1921.

RICHARD ASHVILLE FARLAND is a Clarksburg banker cashier of the West Virginia Bank, and to that line of busi- ness he has devoted his youth and adult manhood. Apart from the value of the work he does and has done his name serves to recall one of the most historic families in this section of the state.

He was born in Clarksburg February 22, 1880. His father, Joseph T. Farland, and his grandfather, Zebulon S. Farland, were both uatives of Tappahannock, Virginia, where Joseph waa born July 19, 1849. As a young man he came to Clarks- burg, and on October 20, 1875, in Christ Episcopal Church of that city, married Mary Thorne, and a few years later began his permanent residence in the city. Joseph T. Farland built up a prosperous coal business, and was head of the Farland Coal and Coke Company. He continued iu this business until his death, ou December 11, 1892.

Mrs. Mary (Thorne) Farland, still living, was born at Wilsonburg, Harrison County, October 4, 1857, daughter of Ashville B. and Margaret (Wilson) Thorne. Her mother was a daughter of Josiah Davisson and Mary (Martin) Wilson, and a granddaughter of Col. Benjamin Wilson. Col. Benjamin Wilson served as an aide-de-camp, with the rank of lieutenant, to Lord Dunmore in the expedition against the Shawnee Indians in 1774, and during the Revolutionary war was a captain in 1777-8 and a colonel in 1787 of forces engaged against the Indians on the frontier. Colonel Wilson built and maintained what is known as Wilson's Fort in Tygart's Valley. He was author of the history entitled "Lord Dunmore's War." His distinctions did not end with his military service, since he was a member of the Virginia Assembly in 1783-4-5-6, and a delegate to the Virginia con- vention in 1788 which ratified the United States Constitu- tion. Again, from 1790 to 1794, he was a soldier in the Federal service for the protection of the frontier settlers against the Indians.

Ashville B. Thorne, maternal grandfather of the Clarks- burg banker, was born in Monongalia County, Virginia, now West Virginia, August 8, 1826, and died at Clarksburg November 19, 1913, in his eighty-eighth year. His wife, Margaret Wilson, was born at Wilsonburg in Harrison County January 13, 1829, and died at Clarksburg November 20, 1920. She was the last survivor of the original Wilsons of Harrison County.

Joseph T. and Mary (Thorne) Farland were active mem- bers of Christ Episcopal Church of Clarksburg, and reared their children in the aame faith. These children were three in number: Francea F., who married Charlea R. Powell, of New York City; Richard A .; and Margaret Elizabeth, wife of Clair P. Sutter, of Clarksburg.

Richard A. Farland, who on account of his maternal ancestry ia a member of the Sons of the American Revo- ution, acquired a good common achool education during hia boyhood, attended West Virginia University two years, and gave up the idea of completing a univeraity career because of the ahortage of funda, which made it advisable for him to go to work. Soon afterward he became an errand boy in the old Tradera National Bank of Clarksburg. When the Union National Bank was organized by the consolidation of the Tradera National and Peoplea Banking & Trust Company, Mr. Farland continued with the new bank and waa in ita service until October 1, 1909. At that date he began hia dutiea aa caahier of the West Virginia Bank of Clarksburg, position he holda today. The only interruption to hia experience aa a banker came in the period between October, 1900, and January, 1902, when he waa credit man for Arm- trong, Crislip, Day & Company, wholeaale grocera of Clarks- purg.

Mr. Farland is a member of Hermon Lodge No. 6, A. F and A. M., Clarksburg, Weat Virginia, and a member of Clarka-

burg Lodge No. 482, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, of which he is treasurer. He has been treasurer of the Clarks- burg Chamber of Commerce, and haa acted aa treasurer for the local Salvation Army organization. On July 24, 1913, Mr. Farland married Miaa Grace Simpson, a daughter of Irwin and Mary (Sutter) Simpaon, of Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. They have one son, Joseph S. Farland, born August 11, 1914. Mr. and Mrs. Farland are members of Christ Episcopal Church.

DAN B. FLEMING was in the ranks of West Virginia's educators for twelve or fifteen years, and resigned as city superintendent of achools at St. Marys to become cashier of the Pleasants County Bank.

Mr. Fleming was born at Ravenswood in Jackson County, West Virginia, November 15, 1885. The Flemings are of Scotch-Irish ancestry, and his grandfather, Bartholomew Fleming, settled at Ravenswood in 1820. He was a native of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. He spent his active career at Ravenswood, where he established a ferry and was one of the first merchants. His wife was Hannah Warth, who was born near Ravenswood and died there. They were the parents of aix children: Oscar, who became a farmer and died in Meiga County, Ohio; George P., a retired wharf master at Ravenswood; Miss Carrie, of Ravenswood; Mrs. Emma Polsene, a widow living at Ravenswood; Henry C .; and Winfield S., a general contractor in Denver, Colorado.

Henry C. Fleming was born at Ravenswood June 30, 1845, and has apent all his life there. For many years he haa been the leading photographer in that section of the state. He was for aeveral terms a member of the City Council, ia a democrat, a member of the Masonic fraternity and a supporting leader in the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. Henry C. Fleming married Lillian Rhodes, who was born at Cottageville, Jackson County, in 1851. She is the mother of three children: The oldest, Jessie, is the wife of Max E. Polsene, a musician at Ravenswood; James ia in the internal revenue service at Parkersburg; and Dan B. ia the youngeat.

Dan B. Fleming graduated from the Ravenswood High School in 1904. He subsequently spent a winter term in Marietta College of Ohio, and for two yeara taught in Ravens- wood, spent one year in the schools of Mason County, and in 1910 graduated from Marshall College, the State Normal at Huntington. Following his graduating Mr. Fleming waa teacher of mathematics and science in the high school of St. Marya one year, was then elected and served four years as principal of the high school, and was next promoted to superintendent of city schools and had charge of the admin- istration of the city school system until 1920.

In January, 1921, Mr. Fleming was elected cashier of the Pleasants County Bank. Thia bank was established in 1897, being opened for business on March 17th. The first president was Newton Ogden, who afterward was state treasurer of West Virginia; the first cashier was Mr. Isaac Reynolds. This bank has a capital of seventy-five thousand dollara, aurplus and profits of twenty thousand dollara, and depoaita approximating five hundred thousand dollars. The bank ia under a state charter and has occupied its modern bank home, a structure of atone and brick, since 1901. The present officers of the bank are: O. C. Barkwill, president; P. S. Tarbox, of Oil City, Pennsylvania, vice president; Dan B. Fleming, cashier; Evert L. Burk, assistant cashier; while the directora are O. C. Barkwill; C. F. Ruttencutter, aheriff of Pleasanta County; Dan H. Reynolda of Parkers- burg; Dr. George H. Gale of Newport, Ohio; E. H. Morgan, C. C. Schauwecker, George Phillips and T. J. Taylor of St. Marya, and Lou Wells of Bena Run, West Virginia.

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History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 3, Part 25

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