History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 3, Part 33

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As a selective service man he was enrolled for duty i Company F. Fortieth Infantry. in the Fourteenth Division His first assignment was at Fort Sheridan, near Chicago, the at Camp Custer, Michigan, and after the signing of th armistice the regiment was ordered to Camp Sherman, Ohie for guard duty. He was discharged there as a first-clas private, and he resumed civilian life March 1, 1919, as a cler in the accountants office of the Baltimore & Ohio Division & Grafton. Soon afterward he joined the business departmer of the Sentinel as bookkeeper, and since 1921, has bee business manager.

HISTORY OF WEST VIRGINIA

Mr. Bennett is finance officer of Taylor County Post of the American Legion, is a member of the Chamber of Commerce and belongs to the Methodist Protestant Church. September 7, 1917, Mr. Bennett married Eileene Burdett Batson, only child of G. H. A. and Lucy Maud (Burdett) Batson. She was born at Pruntytown, March 8, 1893, and was educated in the grade schools there and had two years in the Wesleyan College at Buckhannon. Mr. and Mrs. Bennett have a daughter, Georgeanna, born July 29, 1918, and a son, Louis Lee, born February 21, 1922.

Mra. Bennett's family is an old and conspicuous one in the Pruntytown community. Her great-grandfather, James Batson, came from Loudoun County, Virginia, in pioneer times, was a shoemaker by trade, and followed that occu- pation during the rest of his active life at Pruntytown. He married Sarah Rawlings, and both are buried at Pruntytown. Their children were: Elizabeth, who became the wife of Lamkin Newlon and lived in Taylor County; Thomas, a saddler who followed his trade at Pruntytown and later returned to his home in old Virginia, where he died; John W., whose record follows; James W., who was a shoemaker and later a farmer; Mary Jane, who married Christian Core and lived in Pruntytown and later in Grafton, where she died; Calvin Emery, who was a shoemaker, later in the coal busi- ness and died at Flemington; Susan B., who married Milton Holland and lived in Monongalia and Marion counties, dying in the latter; Washington Randolph was a soldier of the Union Army, an early stage-driver between Fairmont and Morgantown, later a teamster at Fairmont, where he died.

John W. Batson, grandfather of Mra. Bennett, was a native of Loudoun County and a small boy when the family came to Pruntytown, where he learned the shoemaker's trade and worked at it as long as he was able. He died there in 1913, at the venerable age of eighty-eight. He waa active in the Methodist Protestant Church, was a strong partisan of the great whig statesman Henry Clay, and an equally ardent follower of Abraham Lincoln in politics. John W. Batson married Elnora Kunst, who died in 1920. Her father, G. H. A. Kunst, was a native of Germany, came to the United States many years before the Civil war, and spent his life at Pruntytown, where for many years he was an active merchant. Of the four children of John W. and Mra. Batson the two survivors are George H. A. and Mrs. John W. Newlon of Keyser, West Virginia.

George H. A. Batson is a native of Pruntytown, his birth occurring on the property of Charles E. Bunner. He at- tended a subscription school and then the public school, and during vacation spent most of his time around a village store, an association that caused him, when he decided that the time had arrived for a permanent vocation, to become an employe in the store of C. F. W. Kunst at Grafton. A few years later he joined the atore of John H. Kunst at Prunty- town, and for ten years was connected with the West Virginia Reform School, now known as the Industrial School for Boys, at Pruntytown. He was steward and subsequently assistant superintendent of that institution.

Politically he has always voted as a republican, has been a party worker in Taylor County and has been a delegate in numerous local and congressional conventions. He is one of the Official Board of the Pruntytown Methodist Protestant Church and is a Scottish Rite Mason.

In Taylor County Mr. Batson married Mias Lucy Maud Burdett, who is also a native of Pruntytown, and daughter of James Burdett.

J. FRANK Cox throughout his active career of thirty years has given hia skill and energies to one industry, the Wheeling Mold & Foundry Company, of which he is now shop super- intendent.

Mr. Cox was born in New Martinaville in Wetzel County, West Virginia, February 13, 1876, son of Jamea M. and Mollie (Ruddick) Cox. He is a descendant of three notable old families in the West Virginia Northern Panhandle. The Cox family had early settlement in Brooke County, and he is also connected with the Woods family of Ohio County and the Cresap family of Marshall County, his paternal grandmother being Jane Cresap Cox, who was also a great- aunt of Mra. Hannah O. Cresap Cox. Reminiscent of the Woods family influence in thia district ia Wood Street in

Wheeling and also the former auburban town now incor- porated portions of Wheeling known as Woodadale, Wood- lawn and Edgewood. J. Frank Cox married a member of the Cresap family, a name that recalls the earliest recorded history in the Upper Ohio Valley. Thomas Cresap was a representative of the Ohio Company in building its first forts and storehousea on the western slope of the Allegheniea. Michael Cresap, a son of Thomas, was one of the group of pioneers who were associated with Fort Fincastle, predecessor of Fort Henry at Wheeling. Members of both the Cresap and Cox familiea were present at the signing of the treaty with the Indians on Piqua Plains near the old town of Chilli- cothe, Ohio.

James Franklin Cox's mother had lived in Keokuk, Lee County, lowa, and her son's education was begun in the pub- lic schools of Keokuk. He also attended school in Marshall County, West Virginia, and apent one year, 1890-91 at Linsley Institute at Wheeling. Soon after leaving school Mr. Cox began his apprenticeship as a machinist with the Wheeling Mold & Foundry Company. He was one of the first employes of the company and is now the oldest in years of service of any employe or official of the industry. For a number of years he was a draftaman with the company and now has the responsibilities of machine shop superin- tendent. Mr. Cox ia also a director of the Fulton Bank & Trust Company in Wheeling.

In politics he ia non-partisan. He is a member of the Masonic Club of Wheeling and is affiliated with Wheeling Lodge No. 5, F. and A. M., and West Virginia Consistory No. 1 of the Scottish Rite at Wheeling. He also belongs to Wheeling Lodge No. 114, Knights of Pythias. Mr. Cox is a member of St. Matthew's Episcopal Church. October 22, 1902, at Cresap'a Bottom in Marshall County, he mar- ried Hannah O. Cresap, daughter of Quincy and Elizabeth Cresap, of Cresap's Bottom and Moundaville. Her ancestor, Michael Cresap, above noted, surveyed some of the first lands along the bottoms of the Ohio River, and some of these lands are still in the hands of the Cresap and Washington heira. Mr. and Mrs. Cox have an interesting family of seven children: E. Jane Cox, a student in West Virginia University at Morgantown, Jessie R., James F., Mary F., Robert C., Charles Q. and Michael Cresap Cox.

LEE BENNETT, a former sheriff of Taylor County, is a plasterer, contractor and business man of Grafton, where he has spent practically all his years since early childhood. A more popular and substantial citizen of the county it would be difficult to find.

The family was established in Taylor County by his grandfather, Reuben Bennett, a native of Virginia and a farmer by occupation. He died about 1878, aged eighty- one, surviving his wife about a year. Her maiden name was Martha Carder. Reuben Bennett was atrong in his Southern sympathies, but two of his sons wore the blue and two the grey during the Civil war. His children were: Elias; Calvin and Frank, the Union soldiers, who spent their last years in the West; William, who also died in the West; Thomas, who died near Industrial, West Virginia; John, a resident of Taylor County; Tabby, who married Noah Carter and died in Barbour County; Ann, who be- came the wife of Frank Goodwyn and died in Taylor Coun- ty; Jane, who married Everett Scott, and lived and died in the West; and Elizabeth, who died unmarried.

Elias Bennett was born in Taylor County and as a young man left his family to enlist in the Confederate Army, serving from the beginning to the end of the struggle. After the war he settled on a small farm at Vicksburg, Mississippi, and died there in February, 1866, aged forty years. While in the South he married Margaret J. Six, daughter of a Southern planter. Lee Bennett, who was born at Vicksburg, February 19, 1865, was the youngest of three children and the only one to grow up.

After the death of his father his mother came to West Virginia and established her home with Reuben Bennett in Taylor County. She lived at Pruntytown many years, and finally went +o live with her son in Grafton, where she died, September 30, 1921, when almost eighty-one. She was an active member of the Baptist Church, was well educated

HISTORY OF WEST VIRGINIA

and had taught in the South before the war and did some teaching in Taylor County. On coming up from the South she brought, among other effects, the pocketbook and Tes- tament that had been carried by her husband through the war, and these are carefully preserved by her son, Lee.

Lee Bennett had a farm training and attended the rural schools of the Booths Creek District. At the age of eigh- teen, in the intervals of farm work, he began learning the trade of plasterer, and for many years he wielded the trowel, hawk, darby and brush as the principal implements of his life work. After his four years' service as sheriff he again resumed the tools of his trade, and is still a contractor su- pervising the work of several mechanics, though most of his time is devoted to his paint, oil and varnish store on Main Street in Grafton.

When he was elected sheriff in 1912 Mr. Bennett broke a custom in local politics that had kept a republican in the office of sheriff for twenty-eight years. He made the race against big odds, and gave a thoroughly efficient adminis- tration. He succeeded Sheriff Hefner, and was in turn succeeded by Melvin Newlon. Mr. Bennett cast his first presidential vote for Cleveland in 1888 and has always done his duty at the polls and has since helped elect two demo- cratic presidents. He is a member of the Grafton Chamber of Commerce, is a past noble grand of Taylor Lodge No. 23, I. O. O. F., at Pruntytown, and has been a delegate to the Grand Lodge at Huntington, and is also a member of the Woodmen of the World.

In Taylor County, January 21, 1891, Mr. Bennett mar- ried Miss Annie M. Bunner. Her mother was a Miss War- der. She was born at Martins Ferry, Ohio, April 15, 1870, and was reared in Taylor County, where her father died when she was a child. The other children of her parents were Charles, of Pruntytown; Ocie; and Margaret, wife of William Hall, of Seattle, Washington. Mr. and Mrs. Ben- nett have three children. Lee E., connected with the Sen- tinel Publishing Company of Grafton, married Ileen Bat- son, and has a daughter, Georgianna. Ruby married C. L. Kimmel, of Morgantown, and has a daughter, Catherine Virginia. Hazel is the wife of J. D. Sisler, of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and they have a daughter, Jeanne Susan.

GEORGE W. ANDERSON, M. D. A native of Wetzel County, now doing an extensive practice as a physician and surgeon at Littleton, Doctor Anderson was in early life a teacher, and his career has shown him to be possessed of excep- tional abilities for professional service.

He was born near Wileyville, Wetzel County, November 19, 1872, youngest of the fifteen children of William H. Anderson and the only one of this large family born in Wetzel County. All the others were natives of Belmont County, Ohio, where William H. Anderson was born, March 29, 1820. He was a farmer, a Union soldier in the Civil war, and also taught school a number of terms both in Bel- mont County and in Wetzel County, West Virginia. In 1870 he moved to Wetzel County, locating on a farm near Foster, in 1871 went to Postlethwait Ridge near Wiley- ville, and from there in 1883, removed to the vicinity of Smithfield, where he died in January, 1895. He began his voting as a democrat but later became a republican, and was an active member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. William H. Anderson married Lucinda Your, who was born in Belmont County, Ohio, September 21, 1826, and died at Middlebourne, Tyler County, West Virginia, November 29, 1916, at the age of ninety, having retained her faculties to a remarkable degree in advanced years. She was the mother of fifteen children. Among the children who sur- vived infancy were: Hannah, who died in Belmont County, aged seventy-two, wife of David Rutter, a school teacher and farmer who died near Saulsbury in Wood County, West Virginia; John R. was a merchant and died in Wetzel County in 1897; Ieaac L. is a farmer in West Virginia; Samuel is an oil field worker in Texas; Mary, twin sister of Samuel, lives at Earnshaw, her first husband having been Harvey Mahoney and she is now the widow of Lindsa Anderson; Amy lives at Parkersburg, widow of Ebenezer C. Horner, who was a farmer; Margaret lives on her farm in Wetzel County, widow of John Postlethwait; Katherine

is the wife of Friend Rutter. The names of other childr who died in youth were Gasper, Elizabeth, William a Lucinda.

George W. Andersou was reared in the atmosphere of farm in Wetzel County, attended rural schools and spe two years in the Fairmont State Normal School, concludi his work there in 1896. Doctor Anderson was an apt s dent from early childhood, and at the age of fourteen w granted a license to teach and at that time taught a te of rural school in Wetzel County. Altogether he taug eleven terms in the country districts of the county, and w in the schoolroom until 1900. After that until 1904 was in the oil fields of Wetzel County, and then began 1 serious preparation for the medical profession. The fi two years he attended the Central University School of Me icine at Louisville, Kentucky, another year was in the me cal department of the University of Louisville, and finished in the Hospital Medical College, the medical scho of Central University of Kentucky, graduating M. J July 30, 1908. In the same year he began practice Burchfield in Wetzel County, a year later moved to Unic town, where he practiced nine years, and since 1919 h had his home and offices at Littleton. He does all his sı gical work and is a recognized specialist of ability in d eases of children. Doctor Anderson owns his modern ho and offices on the public road in the eastern part of Litt ton and also has a farm seven miles west of Littleton, i proved with good house and other buildings. Doct Anderson is the present city health officer of Littleton, a is a member of the County, State and American Medi associations. He did much home work during the war, a he also passed the examination for duty in the Medi Corps, but by order of the Government remained at Litt ton to help combat the influenza epidemic, which taxed his powers and energies for several months.

Doctor Anderson is a republican and is affiliated wi Folsom Lodge No. 261, Independent Order of Odd Fellow is also an Encampment degree Odd Fellow, and is a me ber of Littleton Lodge No. 111, Knights of Pythias. A gust 19, 1900, in Wetzel County, he married Miss Jessie Toothman, daughter of Jesse S. and Susan (Snider) Too man, the latter deceased. Her father is a retired farm at Hundred. Doctor and Mrs. Anderson had three cb dren: Howard, who died at the age of three months a one day; Gail, born July 13, 1902, graduated from t West Liberty State Normal School in 1920, and is n doing post-graduate work there; and Clair Sherrill, bo March 4, 1911.

ARTHUR TRASK POST, M. D., is a prominent Harris County physician and surgeon, has been engaged in 1 professional work for fifteen years, and he brought to l profession thorough training and preparation and unusu talent for success in that exacting vocation. Since movi to Clarksburg to practice Doctor Post has had his office one location, but is now established in the third office buil ing, the Prunty Building, which stands on the site of t earlier buildings destroyed by fire.

Doctor Post was born at Jarvisville, Harrison Count January 26, 1880. This is one of the oldest families Harrison County, represented here by five successive genc tions. His great-grandfather, Isaac Post, and his grar father, Jacob Post, were both natives of Harrison Count George Washington Post, father of Doctor Post, died 1919, at the age of seventy-five. He was a man of abili and sterling character, achieved success as a farmer a commanded the respect and confidence of all who knew hi He married Margaret A. Yerkey, and both were born a reared in the vicinity of Good Hope, Harrison County. T widowed mother is still living at the old homestead at Jarv ville. She is an earnest member of the United Brethr Church. George W. Post was a republican in politics. their four children Doctor Post is the second in age a the others are Theresa Viola, Asa Gael and Sophroi Esther.

Doctor Post spent his boyhood days and early becar active on a farm, attended public schools and graduated 1901 from Salem College with the degree Bachelor

HISTORY OF WEST VIRGINIA

edagogy. Salem College in 1907 conferred upon him the egree Bachelor of Science. Doctor Post taught school two ears, in 1905 completed his medical studies in the Uni- ersity of West Virginia and then entered the medical partment of the University of Maryland at Baltimore, here he graduated Doctor of Medicine in 1907 and in the me year received a similar degree from the University of Test Virginia. While in Baltimore he became a member of e Phi Beta Pi fraternity, in which society he was at all mes a very active member. At Morgantown he was a ember of the Delta Tau Delta fraternity, had a permanent art in athletics, has a "life pass" to all athletic events, id was a member of the football team in the memorable intest between West Virginia University and Washington id Jefferson College in 1903. After graduating in 1907 octor Post took charge of the practice of Dr. J. S. Maloy ; Shinnston, during the illness of Doctor Maloy. He indled the professional work in that community until octor Maloy recovered, ten months later, and then came Clarksburg and opened his office on West Main Street. octor Post has built up a large and representative follow- g and has kept in touch with all the advances made in edicine and surgery by attending clinics in surgery at hicago, Cleveland. New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore, id also the clinics of the famous Mayo Brothers at ochester, Minnesota.

Doctor Post is a member of the West Virginia and merican Medical associations, served as president in 1922 : the Harrison County Medical Society and is a member : the regular staff of St. Mary's Hospital at Clarksburg. octor Post is a republican. he and wife are members of e Presbyterian Church. and he is a thirty-second degree cottish-Rite Mason and Shriner. a member of the Bene- lent and Protective Order of Elks, the National Masonic lub. the Clarksburg Country Club, the Assembly Club, the llegheny Snortman's Association, the Cheat Mountain lub, the Clarksburg Chamber of Commerce and the Kiwanis lub.

Doctor Post married in 1912 Miss Edna Lenora Siers. heir home is at 232 Daisy Street in Clarksburg. They are e parents of five children, George Winfield, Margaret atherine. Eleanor Edna, Laura Jean and Julia Anne.

For all the husy professional duties of his mature career octor Post keeps in close touch with the interests and sociations of his youth. He is still an enthusiast on foot- all, follows all college and amateur sports, and is one of te influential alumni of the University of West Virginia id also Salem College. Much more than the average tizen, he also keens in touch with the work done by the larksburg High School. While his own children are getting eir education in the grammar schools. Doctor Post is fording financial and other encouragement to a young man w enrolled in the University of West Virginia and takes al paternal interest in his progress. This is only an in- ance of many acts of practical kindness Doctor Post has own to young people whose financial means do not measure o to their ambitions. Doing good is a never ending leasure with Doctor Post.

THOMAS COLLINS THORNBURG was for a number of vears the railroad service, became a traffic manager, and out f his long experience has founded and develoned at Hunt- gton the Thornburg Traffic Bureau, a highly specialized nd technical organization with a clientele embracing many Test Virginia business and industrial concerns.

Mr. Thornburg is a member of an old family of Cabell ountv. hnt was born at Richmond, Virginia. April 6 1892. he Thornhurgs are of Scotch ancestry. and settled in irginia in Colonial times. His grandfather. Collins U. hornburg, was born in West Virginia in 1834, was a ioncer farmer of Cabell County, and while he was away erving in the Confederate army during the Civil war his ne old homestead, located at what is now Guyandotte, was urned and destroyed by the Federals. That is how the amily property was swent away during the war. Collins . Thornburg recovered his early losses during subsequent ears, and continued his life as a farmer near Huntington ntil his death in 1899. He married Nora Miller, who was

born near Cincinnati in 1840, and is still living at Hunting- ton past the age of four score. All her children, four boys and three girls, are living, namely: Harry C .; Miss Lyda, a teacher in the public schools of Huntington; Charles, a merchant in the State of Iowa; Edgar, secretary and treas- urer of the Foster-Thornburg Hardware Company of Hunt- ington ; Frank, a traveling salesman with home at Hunting- ton; Frances, twin sister of Frank, an employe of the Mercereau Hawkins Tie Company of Huntington; and Mrs. Nora Yarbrough, wife of a traveling salesman living at Huntington.

Harry C. Thornburg, who was born at Martinsburg, West Virginia, in 1866, has spent all his active life in railroad service. He was reared near Huntington, and lived for several years at Richmond, Virginia, where he married and where he was in the service of the Chesapeake & Ohio Rail- road as a machinist. He has been with the same railroad ever since, removing to Huntington in 1900, and in 1916 was promoted from machinist to foreman of the roundhouse and is still on duty. Harry C. Thornburg is a democrat, a member of the Johnson Memorial Methodist Episcopal Church, South, of Huntington, and is affiliated with Reese Camp No. 66, Woodmen of the World, and Huntington Lodge No. 313, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.

Harry C. Thornburg married Belle Hartwell Turner, who was born at Richmond, Virginia, in 1872. The oldest of their children is Thomas Collins. Rosa, the second in age, is the wife of John Vaughan, a jewelry merchant at Louisa, Kentucky. Mamie, the youngest child, is the wife of Earl Branham, who is connected with the Du Pont Powder Com- pany and lives at Huntington.

Thomas Collins Thornburg acquired a public school educa- tion at Huntington, and has lived in that city since he was eight years of age. He left school at the age of sixteen and began his service with the Baltimore & Ohio Railway Company as a messenger boy. He possessed the special in- tellectual qualifications that opened the way for rapid advancement in the complicated subject of rates and tariff, and while still at Huntington he was promoted to rate clerk. In 1914 he was transferred, with an advance of salary and as rate clerk, to Fairmont. and in 1917 went to the Cleve- land, Ohio, headquarters of the Baltimore & Ohio, as chief rate clerk. He resigned this position in 1919 and became traffic manager at Cleveland for the Ohio Chemical and Manufacturing Company.

In 1920 Mr. Thornburg returned to Huntington and established the Thornburg Traffic Bureau, of which he is sole owner. This bureau performs the important service of freight audit bureau and the handling of nearly every sub- ject involving freight transportation for business interests. The bureau looks after a large volume of business before the Interstate Commerce Commission and the Public Service Commission. The offices of the bureau are in the Lewis- Samson Building on Fourth Avenue in Huntington.

Mr. Thornburg is a democrat, a member of the Johnson Memorial Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and the West Side Country Club of Huntington. He married in that city in 1913 Miss Mae Bland, daughter of John H. and Edna May Bland. resident of Huntington, where her father is a retired building contractor. Mrs. Thornburg is a graduate of the Huntington High School with the class of 1911 and also a graduate of Marshall College. To their marriage were born four children: Thomas Collins, Jr., born May 30, 1914: Edna Hartwell, who died at the age of eighteen months; James Lewis, horn December 13, 1919; and Edgar Horace, born May 7, 1921.

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History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 3, Part 33

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