History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 3, Part 42

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Louis A. Johnson was educated in the public schools of Roanoke, finished his literary education in the University of Virginia, and in 1912 received his law degree from that institution. During his senior year he was assistant pro- fessor of law. He was admitted to the Virginia bar after graduation, and in September of the same year moved to Clarksburg, where for nine years he has been junior mem- ber of the law firm of Steptoe and Johnson. In 1916 Mr. Johnson was elected a member of the House of Delegates on the democratic ticket,. and during the regular and extraordinary sessions of 1917 was majority floor leader and chairman of the Judiciary Committee, resigning as a member of the Legislature in order to enter the Second Officers' Training Camp at Fort Benjamin Harrison, Indianapolis, August 27, 1917. He was there commissioned captain of infantry, spent some time in Camp Lee, and in May, 1918, went overseas with the Eightieth Division. In France he was in the St. Mihiel and Meuse-Argonne cam- paigns and with the Army of Occupation, being with the Fourth, Fifth, Eightieth and Ninetieth Divisions.

He was discharged from active service June 8, 1919, with the rank of major, and still retains his commission in the Reserve Corps. Since his discharge he has continued his practice of law with the firm of Steptoe and Johnson. Mr.

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Johnson has served two terms as national committeeman from West Virginia in the American Legion, and is now vice president of the West Virginia Bar Association. In addition, he is a member of the American and Harrison County bar associations, the Masons, Odd Fellows and Elks. February 7, 1920, he married Ruth Maxwell, daughter of W. Brent Maxwell, of Clarksburg. They have one daugh- ter, Lillian Maxwell Johnson.

ROBERT L. MACFARLAND is president and general manager of the Ohio Valley Publishing Company, one of the largest publishing and printing houses in West Virginia. The tech- nical facilities, the business organization, and the magnifi- cent trade territory of the concern are in a large and im- portant sense a direct tribute to the phenomenal energy and wisdom Mr. MacFarland has put into the business.

He was born at Parkersburg November 14, 1883, son of Leander B. and Mary J. (Adair) MacFarland, the former from Pennsylvania and the latter from Maryland, of Scotch-lrish ancestry, and both of whom settled in Parkersburg, in 1873 and 1877, respectively.

Robert L. MacFarland attended the public schools and then entered the State University at Morgantown, where he spent one year in the general course and after that in the law school. He was admitted to the har in Wood County in 1904, though he has never made any effort to build up a professional clientele. While in the university he formed the working connections that led to his present business career. He was employed at Parkersburg by the Elletson Printery of Parkersburg, this being succeeded by the Ellet- son-Carver Company. George Elletson began this business as a job printing shop in 1851, and members of the Elletson family have been connected with the business through all its changes. E. B. Elletson, a son of George, is now super- intendent and foreman of the Ohio Valley Publishing Company.

After completing his law course Mr. MacFarland became city salesman for the Elletson-Carver Company. Later he resigned and for a year was city salesman for the Globe Printing & Binding Company. In February, 1909, he was appointed receiver for the Elletson-Carver Company, and at once undertook his duties and had advanced to a point in winding up the affairs of the company where in May, 1909, the business was sold to R. J. A. Boreman, and he then reorganized it as the Ohio Valley Publishing Com- pany. Mr. Boreman was president and Mr. MacFarland, secretary, treasurer and general manager. In May, 1921, when Mr. Boreman retired, he was succeeded as president by Mr. MacFarland. Logically, therefore, the history of the present business covers a period of seventy years. This great growth and development has come within the past ten years. The Ohio Valley Publishing Company now has a business extending to twenty-five states of the Union.

Mr. MacFarland is deeply devoted to the welfare of the city where he has spent practically all his life. At the age of twenty-four he was elected a member of the City Council, serving two terms, of two years each. He was the only democratic member in the Council his first term, and he was chosen by a margin of only nine votes. In 1909 be was re-elected by a majority of 179. He retired in 1911, when the commission form of government was adopted. Mr. MacFarland is a member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the Modern Woodmen of America, the United Commercial Travelers and the Alpha Rho Chapter, Southern Kappa Alpha College Fraternity at West Virginia University.

April 19, 1911, he married Miss Angele L. Pinkley, of Los Angeles, daughter of Virgil L. and Louisa M. (De- vens) Pinkley. Her father for many years was a member of the faculty of the University of Cincinnati. Mr. and Mrs. MacFarland have one son, Lee Virgil MacFarland. Mr. MacFarland is a member of the Rotary Club and Cham- ber of Commerce.

FLAVIUS BAXTER HALLER. Living itself is an achieve- ment, but when to living are added the carrying of bur- dens, the performance of useful work, and the fulfillment of duties, the individual existence acquires distinctions that

make it something better than the common lot. Some- thing in the nature of satisfying fulfillment has marked County, and the following record of himself and family will therefore be not one of the least interesting sketches to appear in these volumes.

The Haller family is of German origin. The grandfather of Flavius Haller, John Haller, was born at Fredrick, Maryland, but little is known of his life work. His brother, Godfrey Haller, spent his life in Barbour County, and Tobias Haller also lives there. Godfrey was a hatter by trade and Tobias made combs out of horn. All these brothers left posterity in Barbour County.

Michael Theodore Haller, father of Flavius Baxter, was born at Shinnston, Harrison County, was a farmer and teacher, was a captain of militia in the old mustering days, and when the Civil war was fought he was a captain in the State Guard. While engaged in rounding up Confederate stragglers, who were returning home from the main army after the surrender of General Lee, he and his squad ran into an ambush and he and several others were killed. This tragedy occurred after the war, on April 24, 1865. His body was brought home and laid to rest in St. John's Ceme- tery in Huffman Settlement of Barbour County. He was forty-one years of age when killed, and left a number of sons and daughters to succeed him. Michael T. Haller was a man of excellent mind and a great reader, and due to the habit of reading was a man of superior education in the county. He was a staunch admirer of Abraham Lincoln, one of the few men in the county who voted for bim in 1860, and he was also a personal and political friend of Governor A. I. Boreman. While reading Mr. Lincoln's speeches in the great debate work with Douglas, Mr. Hal- ler was converted to Lincolnism and declared in the pres- ence of his family, striking his hand heavily upon the tahle, "I'll vote for Abe Lincoln."

Michael T. Haller married Sarah Nestor, a native of Barbour County, born on the waters of Teters Creek. Mrs. M. T. Haller's father, George Nestor, born in the same locality, married Amelia Poling, and both of these families came originally from Holland, George Nestor was a miller on Teters Creek and also enjoyed the reputation of a great bunter. For many years he held the office of magistrate, and one of his sons succeeded him in office. The children of Michael T. Haller and wife were: Catherine, of Elkins, West Virginia, widow of Samuel Shanabarger; Amelia, wife of Jacob Huffman, now living on the waters of Teters Creek; Charles W., of Fairmont; John Webster, a farmer and carpenter near Arden in Barbour County; Flavius Baxter; Mary Elizabeth, who became the wife of Isaac Coonts, of Belington; Watson Herschel, of Bridgeport, West Virginia; and Michael Lorenzo, in the hotel busi- ness at Belington. The mother of these children married for her second husband Jackson Ramsey, but had no chil- dren by that union. She died June 19, 1899, at the age of seventy-six.

Flavius Baxter Haller was born on Teters Creek in Bar- bour County, February 1, 1855, and had only the advan- tages of the common schools, which during his boyhood were not noted for the efficiency of their discipline. Better than any school work was the inheritance of his father's disposi- tion to read and investigate for himself, and more than most men Mr. Haller has been a student all his life. The read- ing room and table in his home are covered with magazines, daily papers and other periodicals. Perhaps the first money he ever earned was in making soapstone pencils, which he sold and the proceeds he invested in a third reader. The fact that he grew up on a farm is evidence that he early learned the meaning of hard labor. He was sixteen years of age when his mother married again, and after that he lived with strangers until he acquired a home of his own. During the summer season he worked for wages on a farm, and turned these wages to good account by attending school in winter. Thus even his schooling meant a considerable struggle and self sacrifice. After leaving school Mr. Hal- ler went to Indiana and worked on a farm in Elkhart, John- son, and Shelby counties. Harvest hands were then being paid $2 a day and ordinary labor $1 a day. After being in Indiana six months he returned home and worked for

DOPhillips

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Squire John N. Hall on his farm on Elk Creek for two years. Following that Mr. Haller became a photographer, taking pictures by the old daguerreotype process. He then ame to Taylor County, worked on a farm two years, and following that was a merchant at Tyrconnell for eight years. He left business of his own to go on the road as a com- mercial traveler, and successfully represented the firms of Jacobs and Eisenburg for four years; was on the road for he Deleplain Dry Goods Company of Wheeling fifteen years; then for John A. Horner of Baltimore; H. P. Mc- Gregor and Company of Wheeling; the Koblegard Com- any of Clarksburg; and concluded his twenty-seven years of travel work as representative for the firm of Hicks and Hoge.

After selling his own store Mr. Haller bought a farm at Rosemont, established his family there, and, when not on the road, personally supervised farm work and farm levelopments. Since retiring from salesmanship he has nade farming his chief interest, the most profitable feature of his farm enterprise being dairying and poultry raising. Mr. and Mrs. Haller are not actuated by a strenuons am- ition to get rich and have found it better to be content with a moderate degree of prosperity and really live while they live.

Mr. Haller's citizenship has been of a public spirited and practical kind. For eight years he was a member of the Board of Education, and while on the board helped es- ablish the first district high school in Taylor County and one of the first district high schools in the state. Other matters that have been accorded his earnest support are good public roads and other improvements. He has been worker in the republican party, was a delegate to the State Convention when Governor Atkinson was nominated, ind was a delegate to the well remembered state conven- ion at Charleston when one faction nominated Swisher for governor and the rump convention nominated still another, while later both candidates were withdrawn through the Elkins influence and Governor Glasscock was put up and ·lected.

In Taylor County, September 5, 1883, Mr. Haller mar- ied Miss Amanda Bailey, daughter of Silas P. and Almyra 'Kelley) Bailey. Mrs. Haller was the oldest child of her Father's second marriage and was born in Taylor County, February 7, 1863. She had two sisters, the wife of Dr. . R. Peck of Clarksburg and Mrs. Alta Lanham, the lat- er having died, October 2, 1899. Her brothers are the ate B. F. Bailey a prominent attorney of Grafton, who lied suddenly in New York City on December 1, 1914; Grant, of Rosemont; Carl, a successful dairyman and farmer n Randolph, New York; and Brnce Bailey, a civil engineer it Fairmont. Of the children born to Mr. and Mrs. Haller he oldest is Earl Stanley, manager at Staunton, Virginia, for Sine's Ice Cream Company of Harrisburg, Virginia. The second child, Enid, is the wife of H. Ralph Harper, who is in the office of the Grasselli Chemical Company at Zeising, West Virginia. M. Quay is an inspector for the Hutchinson Coal Company at Erie, West Virginia. Sallie married Carl Huffman a chemist living at Denver, Colorado. Morris Jacob, the youngest of the family, graduated A. B. 'rom West Virginia University, is. also a graduate of the Fairmont State Normal School. for a time was a high chool principal and is now in the real estate business at Morgantown.

Something should be said in conclusion concerning the Haller home at Rosemont. It is one of the old homes of hat locality, stands on an elevation near the public high- way, and is marked both for its domestic conveniences and For the air of hospitality that surrounds it. In point of Conveniences it is in a class with many city homes. The house, barn, back. buildings and grounds are illuminated rom a Delco electric lighting system, and this plant is ised not only for lighting, but also to supply current for number of mechanical devices, not least among which is the electric iron and washer. The house has a complete water system, bathroom and other facilities. After hav- ng equipped five children abundantly for useful work in ife, it seems appropriate that Mr. and Mrs. Haller should have such an attractive and comfortable place in which

to spend their remaining years and enjoy the fruit of their labor and economy.

SIMEON L. LONG. For twenty years or more Simeon L. Long has been one of the men of leadership in the business, financial and educational affairs of Wetzel County. He is president of the Bank of Littleton and one of the prin- cipal lumber mill operators in the county.

Mr. Long has made his own way in the world. He se- cured his early education in the rural schools of Wetzel County, where he was born near Silver Hill, March 6, 1873. He also attended the Fairmont State Normal School two terms, concluding his work there in 1896. At the age of seventeen he taught his first term in a rural school of Wet- zel County. Altogether he spent nine years in the school- room and in 1902 was elected county superintendent of schools, beginning his first four year term on July 1, 1903. In 1906 he was returned to this post of responsibility, his second term beginning July 1, 1907. Thus for over twenty years he was either a teacher or had the general adminis- tration of the school system of the connty.

In the meantime, in 1900, Mr. Long became interested in the timber business and lumber milling, and he still owns and operates two saw mills, working up various timber tracts throughout this section. One of his mills is now es- tahlished at Hammond and the other at Mobley.

The Bank of Littleton, of which he is president, was established May 20, 1901, under a state charter, and is now one of the strong and prosperous institutions of Wetzel County, with capital of $25,000, surplus and profits of $15,000, and deposits averaging $400,000. Mr. Long was vice president from July, 1920, to January, 1921. The other executive officers are: F. W. Daugherty, of Little- ton, vice president; B. A. Pyles, cashier; while the direc- tors are S. L. Long, F. W. Daugherty, B. A. Pyles, Baker Cosgray, J. K. Long of Silver Hill, John L. Carney of Sil- ver Hill, Ellis Miller of Littleton, U. G. Thomas of Glover Gap and Dr. W. V. Teagarden of Cameron, West Vir- ginia.

There has been no lapse in Mr. Long's sincere interest in the educational affairs of his county. He is now presi- dent of the Board of Education of the Clay District, com- prising Littleton and five rural schools. He votes as a democrat, is affiliated with the Methodist Episcopal Church, and is a member of Littleton Lodge No. 131, F. and A. M., and Littleton Lodge No. 111, Independent Order of Odd Fellows.

In 1897, near Littleton, he married Miss Myrtle Aberegg, daughter of David and Margaret (Francis) Aberegg, the latter a resident of Smithfield, West Virginia. Her father owned a large farm and died in Clay District of Wetzel County. Mr. and Mrs. Long have had a fine family of nine children. The oldest, Edna Ellen, is the wife of Jean H. Wood, now superintendent of city schools at Lit- tleton. The second child, Cecil A., died May 25, 1918. at the age of eighteen, while a junior in the Littleton High School. Clarence, the third child, died at the age of four years. The other children are: Ernest, born January 6, 1905. attending the Littleton High School; Mildred, born April 9, 1907; Virginia, born February 11, 1910; Carl, born February 24, 1914; Willa Frances, born November 26, 1916: and Bernadette, born May 30, 1920.

DAVID R. PHILLIPS. Perhaps the best measure of success is the manner in which talents and opportunities are used at every successive stage in the individual's career. A slate picker in a coal breaker at the age of ten, then a practical coal digger and an eager student of all the technical proc- esses involved in coal mining, successively mine foreman, superintendent, and now manager, with headquarters at Huntington, of the extensive interests of the Elkhorn-Piney Mining Company-apparently there has been no time in the life of David R. Phillips when he has not kept every faculty of his being alert and responsive to the duties before him.

Mr. Phillips was born at Ashland, Schuylkill County. Pennsylvania, July 5, 1859. He is of Welsh ancestry. His grandfather, Rosser Phillips, was born in Wales in 1791, and

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was a hotel proprietor in his native country. In 1850 he brought his family to America, and lived for a time at Minersville, Pennsylvania, and later at Ashland, where he died in 1873. He married Janet Jones, a native of Wales, who died at Ashland, Pennsylvania. Their son, Joseph Phillips, was born in Wales in October, 1832, and was about eighteen years of age when he came to America. He became a miner at Minersville, and continued in the same industry after the family moved to Ashland in 1856. In 1860 he went to Mineral Ridge, Ohio, and worked in the mines of that vicinity until he enlisted in 1862 as a Union soldier in the One Hundred and Fifth Ohio Infantry. Later in the same year and in his first campaign he was severely wounded at the battle of Perryville, Kentucky, and was incapacitated for further military service. After recovering in some degree his health and strength he became foreman of timbering gangs for the Reading Railroad Company of Ashland, Pennsylvania, but in 1873 returned to Mineral Ridge, Ohio, and resumed mining. In 1876 he moved to Brishin, Clearfield County, Pennsylvania, where he was a miner and a merchant. He died in April, 1892, his death heing due to the results of the wound he received while in the army. At the time of his death he was overseer of the poor at Brisbin. He was a republican in politics, and for many years held the post of deacon in the Baptist Church. He was affiliated with the Improved Order of Red Men.

Joseph Phillips married Rachel Edwards, who was born in Wales in August, 1838, and now lives at Phillipsburg, Pennsylvania. Their children were: Mary Jane, wife of Thomas Thomas, a miner and mechanic at Berlin, Pennsyl- vania; David R .; Thomas, an invalid living at Warren, Pennsylvania; Joseph, a miner who died at Phillipsburg at the age of forty-nine; Rachel, wife of Joseph Morgan, a miner in Pennsylvania; Sarah, who died at Johnstown, Pennsylvania, at the age of thirty-three, wife of Charles Ahsalom, a mine foreman in that city; Margaret, wife of Thomas Clement, of Phillipsburg; Benjamin, who died at Johnstown, Pennsylvania, aged seventeen, having been killed in a railroad accident.

David R. Phillips in the intervals of his early working career attended public schools at Ashland, and also did night school work, and while he never attended college he has gained a good literary education by private study and has the technical education of a mining engineer acquired by completing the course of the International Correspon- dence School of Scranton. As previously noted, he did his first work as slate pieker at the age of ten, subsequently was introduced to other practical phases of the miner's trade in Ohio, and in 1886 became a mine foreman in Clear- field County, Pennsylvania, and remained there until he was promoted to superintendent of mines. He was for a time district manager for the Somerset Coal Company in Somer- set County, and held a similar position with the Reading Iron Company in Somerset County until February, 1905.

Mr. Phillips' association with the coal mining industry of West Virginia began in February, 1905, when he removed to Tunnelton and for two years was superintendent of the Merchants Coal Company. Then for two years he was super- intendent of mines in Tucker County for the Davis Coal and Coke Company, and left that to become state mine inspector. He was in this office of the state government two years, and for a brief time after retiring was superintendent of the E. R. Johnson Mines in Logan County, and the next ten years he devoted to his duties as allotment commissioner for the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway Company.

Mr. Phillips on June 1, 1920, became mine inspector for the Elkhorn-Piney Mining Company and on August 1st of the same year was advanced to manager of the company's mining properties, which are located at Weeksburg, Ken- tucky. at Dehue in Logan County, and at Powellton, Mahan, St. Clair and Stanford, West Virginia. These mines fave a working capacity of 150,000 tons a month. Mr. Phillips' offices are in the Robson-Pritchard Building at Huntington. He is well known among the coal men who have their headquarters in this city, and is a popular man of affairs in the community. He is a republican, a Baptist, is affiliated with Somerset Lodge, F. and A. M., of Somerset, Pennsyl- vania, and the Royal Arcanum, and has a modern home at

612 First Street in Huntington, and also owns a home in Phillipsburg, Pennsylvania, and other real estate in Suffolk, Virginia.

In March, 1880, af Brisbin, Pennsylvania, Mr. Phillips married Miss Elizabeth Edwards, daughter of William S. and Elizabeth (Jenkins) Edwards, now deceased. Her father was a mine superintendent in Clearfield County. Mr. and Mrs. Phillips have an interesting family of seven children. Reuben C., the oldest, is a mine superintendent at Chap- mansville, West Virginia. William is a druggist at Windber, Pennsylvania. Wendell O. married and a traveling sales- man, with home at St. Albans, West Virginia, is an ex-service man, spending a year in France in the Radio Department as first sergeant. Elizabeth is the wife of Harry Pugli, a superintendent of mine commissaries in Somerset County, Pennsylvania. David is a mine foreman, living at Omar, West Virginia. Rachel is the wife of Richard Petit, owner of an electrical shop at Beckley, West Virginia. John, the youngest of the family, enlisted at the time of the World war and was stationed at Morgantown in the radio department. He has the Welsh gift for music, and is the possessor of a remarkable baritone voice and is now cultivating this talent under special private teachers in New York City.

WILLIAM F. HARLESS, M. D. Skilled physician, efficient business man and good citizen, Dr. William F. Harless, of Clothier, is one of the representative men of Boone County, and no one stands any higher in public opinion than he. He was born near Spencer, Roane County, West Virginia, October 4, 1881, a son of William H. and Frances (Keifer) Harless. The Harless family was established in this coun- try by Doctor Harless' great-grandfather, a native of Ger- many, who settled in Virginia, and it was in that state that the grandfather was born. The Keifers were also of Ger- man extraction. Both William H. Harless and his wife were born in West Virginia, and he is a farmer of Roane County, and a man of some importance in his home community, hav- ing served on the school board, as a county commissioner, as a deacon of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and in other capacities, and he is a prominent member of the In- dependent Order of Odd Fellows.

After completing his studies in the common schools of his native county Doctor Harless went through the Spencer High School. His professional training was taken at the University of Louisville, Kentucky, and he was gradu- ated therefrom in 1908, with the degree of Doctor of Medi- cine. Immediately thereafter he established himself in a general practice at Clothier, where he still remains. Doctor Harless established the drug store at Clothier and one at Madison, both of which he still owns and keeps under his personal supervision, although he has a registered pharma- cist at each one. He took up post-graduate work in 1913 at the Post-Graduate School of New York City, and keeps abreast of the progress made in his profession by reading and study. For some time he has served as physician and surgeon of the Buffalo-Thacker Coal Company at Ottawa, West Virginia, and is also a C. & O. Railway surgeon.

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History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 3, Part 42

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