History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 3, Part 53

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In 1899, at Parkersburg, he married Miss Eva C. Ogdin, laughter of Mr. and Mrs. Louis Ogdin, now deceased. Her father was a well to do farmer near Waverly. Three children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Wharton: Ray Hunter, born February 27, 1901, graduated from West Virginia University Medical School in June, 1921, at the ige of twenty, is now an assistant instructor in the medi- al department, and in the fall of 1922 expects to enter Jefferson Medical College at Philadelphia. During the var he was in the Reserve Officers Training Camp at the university and is still in the Reserve, and will receive rank is second lieutenant at the age of twenty-one. The two rounger children of Mr. and Mrs. Wharton are Willa, born n 1906, attending the Magnolia High School, and Eva America, born in 1909.

WILLIAM H. GREENE, M. D. A well established physi- ian and surgeon at Weston, Doctor Greene was a captain n the medical corps during the World war, and is well nown in Lewis County on account of his professional activities in town and country.

Doctor Greene was born in Braxton County, West Vir- inia, January 5, 1878, son of William H. and Mary Griffin) Greene, his father born in Upshur County in 841 and his mother in 1843. Both are now deceased. Villiam H. Greene, Sr., was reared on a farm, had a ublic school education, at the age of seventeen began eaching, and continued that service until he had com- leted forty-three terms of school work. He was one of he prominent educators of Braxton County in his day. Ie also did some farming, and after retiring from the choolroom lived on a farm until his death. He was a member of the Catholic Church, a democrat, and served ixteen years as a justice of the peace in Braxton County. of his nine children one died in infancy and seven are ow living: Dr. William H .; Madge, formerly a teacher, ow the wife of M. A. Hennessy; John, an oil well driller; Edward, who was a teacher, went to England in 1918 in he employ of the United States Fuel Administration, and 3 still abroad; Winifred, formerly a teacher, is the wife f Clarence Marsh, of Braxton County; Michael A., now eaching at Wheeling, was a second lieutenant in the World var; and Bridget is a trained nurse living at Baltimore.

Dr. William H. Greene grew up on a farm, acquired his ublic and academic training at Burnsville, and for four ears taught school. He then entered the University of

Louisville Medical School and was graduated in 1908. Doc- tor Greene began his professional practice at Camden in Lewis County, and was the principal physician in that country community for nine years. Early in the World war he accepted a commission as captain in the medical reserve corps and subsequently was assigned to active duty at a base hospital in New York City, where he served a year and a half. After leaving the army Doctor Greene resumed his practice at Camden one year, and in 1920 established his home and offices at Weston. He is a mem- ber of the County, State and American Medical associa- tions and the Southern Medical Association, is a Catholic, Knight of Columbus and in politics a republican.

In 1909 he married Miss Beatrice Murray. Their five children are Marie, Irene, William H., Jr., Geraldine and Charles.

PHILANDER K. TETER, a resident of Lewis County for half a century, was at one time in the railway mail serv- ice, was also in business at Weston, but now devotes his time to his stock farm, where he makes a specialty of breeding pure bred Hereford cattle. He has one of the best herds of beef stock in the state.

Mr. Teter was born in Harrison County, West Virginia, July 4, 1860, son of David and Asenath (Lang) Teter. His father was born in Harrison County in November, 1830, and his mother in December, 1820. Both lived long and useful lives, the father dying in 1913 and the mother in 1911. After their marriage they settled on a farm, and began with practically nothing. David Teter pos- sessed an unusually well balanced character, had good judgment, great industry, and in the course of years he accumulated a competence and 600 acres of good farming land. He was one of the pioneer live stock dealers in this section, and was well known through his dealings over Harrison, Taylor, Doddridge and Lewis counties. He shipped stock to the eastern markets of Baltimore, Phila- delphia and New York. During the Civil war he served in the Union army as a teamster. In 1872 he moved with his family to Lewis County, and at one time was superin- tendent of the Poor Farm, and conducted that institution with such efficiency and economy that for the first time it accumulated a surplus in the treasury, though an unusu- ally large number of dependents had to be cared for. David Teter was a republican and a member of the Metho- dist Episcopal Church. Of his four children one died in infancy. Jesse H. is a Lewis County farmer living in Weston. Margaret is the wife of E. C. Fisber, of Lewis County.

Philander K. Teter was twelve years old when the family moved to Lewis County on April 13, 1872. He acquired a distriet school education, and his working activities were in association with his father until he was about twenty- eight years old. It was on leaving the farm that he be- came a railway mail clerk. This was during the adminis- tration of President Harrison. He had charge of the first standard mail car run over the division from Clarksburg to Buckhannon and Weston. He was in the mail service for several years, and when he resigned he started a feed barn at Weston and gradually increased that to a general livery barn. He conducted this for twenty years, and in- cidentally also had a meat market and barber shop. He traded these holdings in Weston for a farm, and for another five years conducted a boarding barn. Selling that property, he bought one of his present farms, comprising 214 acres, and has still another farm of 208 acres. His first important venture in the stock business was the breed- ing and growing of ponies, and his farm became widely known as the Hill and Dale Farm. He has abandoned the pony industry and now makes a specialty of Hereford cattle and Duroc swine, his place being known among breeders as the Smith Run Hereford Farm.

March 28, 1890, Mr. Teter married a daughter of Dr. Philip F. Pinnell. She was reared at Buckhannon and graduated in music at Pittsburg. They have one daugh- ter, Mabel, born February 26, 1892, a graduate of the Weston High School and now the wife of T. M. Alker of

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Jersey City, New Jersey. Mr. and Mrs. Alker have a son, Philander K. Alker, seven years old. Mr. Teter is a member of Weston Lodge No. 43, Knights of Pythias, and for the past fifteen years has been master of the exchequer of bis lodge. He was for 212 years a school com- missioner, but resigned that office. In politics he is a republican.

HENRY BLUMBERG is manager of the Hub Department Store at Weston. This is one of a chain of mercantile enterprises owned and directed by members of the Blum- berg family, the headquarters of the business being at Baltimore.

Henry Blumberg was born in Russia, October 5, 1885, and was three years of age when his parents, Hyman and Mary (Kramer) Blumberg, came to America. They lo- cated in Baltimore, where Hyman Blumberg for many years has been one of the prosperous and successful mer- chants and is still active in the wholesale business, asso- eiated with his sons. He is a member of the Jewish Synagogue at Baltimore. The four children are: Alexan- der, who finished his education in the public schools of Baltimore, is now president of the mercantile corporation of the family, a company operating four large stores, one at Baltimore, one at Fairmont, West Virginia, one at Wes- ton and one at Charleston. The second son, M. M., is manager of the Fairmont business. Henry is at Weston, while Martin is a partner in the business at Baltimore, having a business college course. In 1909 Henry went into business for himself at Grafton, West Virginia. He re- mained there three years and since 1912 has been active head of the Hub store at Weston. The business at Wes- ton was established by his older brothers, Alexander and M. M., in 1902, and has bad a steady growth and pros- perity for twenty years.

In 1910 Mr. Henry Blumberg married Rose Rubenstein, a native of Philadelphia, where she was reared and edu- cated. They have four children, named Minerva, Bernard, Anita and Eleanor. Mr. Blumberg and family are mem- bers of the Baltimore Congregation. He is active in the Rotary Club and Chamber of Commerce at Weston and is an independent voter.

GEORGE SNYDER, M. D. In the county where he was horn and reared Dr. George Snyder bas practiced medi- eine and surgery with credit and success for upwards of thirty years, and he ranks high among the professional men of Weston and bis public spirit in community affairs has been on a par with his professional enthusiasm.

Doetor Snyder was born on a farm two miles north- west of Weston, October 24, 1863, son of Robert and Lucinda (Fisher) Snyder. His mother was a native of Lewis County, while his father was born in Rockingham County, Virginia, and was brought as a boy to Lewis County, West Virginia. The parents of Doctor Snyder died when he was an infant, his mother in 1865 and his father in 1866. George was the youngest of three children. As orphans they were reared in the home of their maternal grandmother Fisher.

Dr. George Snyder had the farm as his youthful environ- ment, and his opportunities in the public schools improved him so well that he qualified as a teacher and for two years taught school. For one year he attended the Glen- ville Normal, and then began the study of medicine with Dr. W. Gaston of Clarksburg. After his preliminary studies he entered medical college in the fall of 1887, was graduated in 1889, and for eight years he conducted his private practice at Freemansburg in Lewis County. From 1897 to 1899 Doctor Snyder was assistant superintendent of the West Virginia State Hospital. On retiring from that office he located at Weston, where he has now prac- tieed for twenty-two years, and his office has always been in the same building.

He married Lum Gibson, daughter of J. J. Gibson. She became the mother of four children: Ava, a graduate of the Weston High School and of the Mountain State Business College at Parkersburg, is the wife of Charles

A. Jennings, of Akron, Ohio; Madge, a high school gradu- ate and a graduate of St. Joseph's School for Nurses at Baltimore, is the wife of J. B. Brown; Robert G. graduated from high school, spent one year at Randolph-Macon Col- lege, then attended Washington and Lee University, and is now in the Government service in the Philippines; Wilma, the youngest, is a high school gradnate. After the death of the mother of these children Doctor Snyder married, March 28, 1907, Irene B. Turner. They are members of the Baptist Church. Doctor Snyder is a past chancellor of the Knights of Pythias Lodge, a republican, and is a stockholder in the Lewis County Bank.

BERTRAM A. KOBLEGARD. The name Koblegard has been a prominent one in commercial affairs in West Virginia for a long period of years. Its distinctive associations over the state at large were with the wholesale grocery busi- ness. Bertram A. Koblegard is a son of the wholesale merchant, was with his father in business for a time but now conducts a leading fire insurance agency at Weston.

Bertram A. Koblegard was born at West Union in Doddridge County, West Virginia, March II, 1874, son of Jacob and Isophene (Powell) Koblegard. Jacob Koble- gard was born in Denmark, October 5, 1848, and came to the United States at the age of sixteen. He had a fair education, a bent for industry, but had literally no money. For several years he worked on farms in Obio. He then came to West Virginia, and by successive steps became a prominent factor in the wholesale grocery business, and for thirty years was connected with the firm Ruhl Koble- gard & Company, with branch offices in Weston, Clarks- burg and Grafton. He sold out his interest in this busi- ness in 1904. For a number of years he was also presi- dent of the National Exchange Bank of Weston and was president of the Crescent Window Glass Company of Wes- ton. Jacob Koblegard finally went back to Denmark, and died at Copenhagen, September 4, 1919. He was a mem- her of the Masonic Lodge, and he and his wife were Methodists. His wife was born in Harrison County, West Virginia, in 1855. They were the parents of four chil- dren: Bertram A .; Mamie C., wife of E. R. Minshall, of Tulsa, Oklahoma; Rupert N., of Washington, D. C .; and Thorne F., of Weston.

Bertram A. Kohlegard has lived most of his life in Wes- ton, where he attended the grammar and high schools, and for two years was a student in Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania. In 1896 he graduated A. B. from Ohio Wesleyan University at Delaware, and then returned to Weston to participate in his father's wholesale grocery business. When bis father retired he established an office to handle fire insurance, and in that business has found a congenial as well as profitable field. He has several financial interests, and is a man of unusual gifts, dis- played particularly in literature. He bas written several| novelettes, one play, and a number of short stories that have been contributed to magazines. In religious matters he is a liberal. He has been active in the democratic party, was a member of the city council, and was defeated with the rest of his ticket as candidate for county clerk in 1908. He is a member of the Ancient Order of United Workinen.

In 1897 Mr. Koblegard married Flora Davisson. They have two sons: Jacob, a graduate of the Weston High School and now in the antomobile business in New York City; and Edwin, also a high school graduate, and a clerk in the Weston postoffice.

A. F. WHELAN has to his credit a record of practically half a century of active participation in the commercia affairs of Weston. He is now retired from merchandising though the business goes on under the management of his son, A. F., Jr. Mr. Whelan among other honors is a vet eran Union soldier.

He was born in Berkeley County, West Virginia, January 22, 1840, son of James and Johanna (Welsh) Whelan, the former a native of County Kilkenny and the latter of County Waterford, Ireland. They grew up and were edu

Plladams!

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cated and married in Ireland, and came to the United States in 1829. They lived in New York for a time, where James Whelan was a laboring man. For three years he worked on the Washington and Cumberland Canal, and subse- quently leased a farm in Pennsylvania and worked it seven years. He then moved to Preston County, West Virginia, and was a foreman in the building of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, and subsequently located at West Union, where he was superintendent of construction for the west end of the tunnel two years. When he gave up railroad work he bought a farm in Lewis County, on Mud Lick, three miles southeast of Weston, and in that country district continued his activities as a farmer until the end of his life. He then moved to Weston, and both he and his good wife died there. They were devout Catholics and he was a democrat. He was one of the substantial farmers of Lewis County, owning at one time 400 acres of land. Of his eighteen children six are still living: A. F. Whelan; Margaret, widow of John Morrison; Dr. M. E. Whelan, of Roanoke, West Virginia; Thomas, of Weston; Miss Julia; and Martin, of Jefferson, Texas.

A. F. Whelan grew up on his father's farm, and at- tended the parochial schools. He lived at home until the Civil war came on, and he joined the Union army and for 21/2 years served as a brigade wagon master. On July 3, 1865, soon after the close of the war, he married Mary McGill. She was born in Ireland and came to the United States with her parents when she was a girl.

After his marriage Mr. Whelan bought the property where he now lives in Weston. For three years he was manager of the store of P. M. Hale, and then, in 1868, engaged in business for himself. He continued in busi- ness until nearly all his early contemporaries had retired, and finally he retired himself, turning the business over to his son Andrew F. Mr. Whelan was one of the organ- izers of the Citizens Bank of Weston, one of the substantial financial institutions of the state, and he is still vice presi- dent. Mr. and Mrs. Whelan had seven children, and the five now living are: Alice W., wife of William McGary, of Weston; Mary J., wife of Walter A. Edwards, of Weston; Andrew F., Jr., successor to his father in business at Wes- ton; Catherine, widow of Luther Sleigh; and Thomas A., who is cashier of the Citizens Bank. The deceased chil- dren are: James Joseph, who died at Thomasville, Georgia, in young manhood, and one child that died at birth. The family are members of the Catholic Church and Mr. Whelan is a democrat in politics.

JOSEPH B. Cox is one of the most substantial business men and citizens of Weston. His business interests and activities have taken a rather diversified form during his active career, but for many years have been directed in the furniture business at Weston.

Mr. Cox was born on Sand Fork in Lewis County, West Virginia, June 7, 1857, son of Thomas and Margaret (Gil- looly ) Cox. His father who was born in County Roscom- mon, Ireland, April 26, 1815, was reared in Ireland, liber- ally educated, and was a teacher both in his native coun- try and after coming to the United States. He was also a surveyor by profession. When he came to this country he located at Fairmont, West Virginia, where he met and mar- ried his wife. She was a native of the same county in Ire- land, and after coming to the United States had lived in New York City for a time. After his marriage Thomas Cox worked with Owen Gillooly at Fairmont and later moved to Sand Fork, West Virginia, in 1855, and bought a farm. Farming was his vocation the rest of his life. He and his wife died in the same year, she in January and he in Decem- ber, 1892. They were faithful Catholics, and he was a demo- crat in his political affiliation. There were eleven children, and the five now living are: James W., a retired oil pro- ducer in Weston; Patrick, a former coal miner, also living at Weston; John H., of Hot Springs, Arkansas; Miss Mary A .; and Joseph B.

Joseph B. Cox spent his early life on the farm on Sand Fork and attended the local public schools. He remained at home until he was twenty-three, and after leaving home he secured employment as a carpenter at the State Hos-

pital at Weston. Altogether he was in the service of the hospital for seven years. After his first period of employ- ment he went into business for himself for a time, and hav- ing saved some capital he bought a farm of 183 acres on Sand Fork. He still owns that property, though he occupied it and operated it only for a year and a half after his marriage.

On November 24, 1884, he married Ella Mellett. On leaving the farm he resumed his connection with the hos- pital and subsequently bought a property on the ground where his present furniture store is located. He built a business room there in 1896, and for seven years was asso- ciated in the furniture business with his brother. He then bought out his brother's interests and has since conducted one of the best stocked and most prosperous enterprises of its kind in Lewis County. He owns one of the finest homes in the city, at the corner of Third and Main streets, and has a number of other improved properties. His pros- perity is the direct result of his great energy and good management, since he started life with practically no capi- tal. He is a democrat and his family are all Catholics.

His first wife died in 1899, leaving two daughters, Mary and Ella, both of whom finished their educations in Mount de Chantel Academy at Wheeling. Ella is a graduate nurse but is now the wife of Charles Green in Mississippi. Mary is the wife of H. P. Henry, of Weston. Mr. Cox subse- quently married Catherine Tully. They have five children : Margaret, James, Joseph, Catherine and Nora A. Margaret is also a graduate of Mount de Chantel Academy.

JOHN R. DAVIS is secretary-treasurer of the Davis Lum- ber Company, one of the larger concerns operating in the lumber sections of West Virginia, the band mill being at Centralia in Braxton County. Mr. Davis has charge of the company's office and business at Weston.

He was born in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, at Ur- sina, July 7, 1877, son of Joseph B. and Sophia (Walker) Davis. His parents were also born in Somerset County, were reared and educated there, and after their marriage Joseph Davis went into the mercantile and lumber business. For a number of years he continued the business under the name of J. B. Davis & Sons at Ursina, and is still active in the business and the director of the County Trust Com- pany at Somerset. He has served as a trustee of the Lutheran Church and is a republican. Joseph B. Davis and wife had six children: Bertha C., a graduate of high school, also attended college; Edgar C., a graduate of the State Normal School at Indiana, Pennsylvania; John R .; Frank W., president of the Davis Lumber Company; and Claude W. and Wilbur L., both associated with the Davis Company.

John R. Davis grew up at Ursina, Pennsylvania, attended the grammar and high school there and the State Normal at Indiana, and after finishing his education served his prac- tical apprenticeship in the lumber business under his father. Since 1911 he has looked after the company's business at Weston.

He married Miss Bertha Brannon, a native of Weston. They have five children, named William B., Adelaide W., Elizabeth C., John R., Jr., and Martha Hughes. Mr. Davis is a vestryman of St. Paul's Episcopal Church, affiliated with Weston Lodge of Masons, Bigelow Chapter No. 4, R. A. M., St. John Commandery No. 8, K. T., and is a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason and a noble of Nemesis Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Parkersburg. He is a republican, and for two years was a member of the City Council of Weston, but declined a re-election. He is a mem- ber of the Weston Rotary Club, of which he served as a director in 1921-1922.

RUSSELL UPDEGRAFF ADAMS has had a progressive asso- ciation with various industrial organizations in the Upper Ohio Valley for nearly twenty years. For several years his home has been at Sistersville, where he is secretary and treasurer of the Young Torpedo Company, a corpo- ration manufacturing quantities of the explosives used in the oil and gas districts.

Mr. Adams was born at Wheeling, March 4, 1888. His family has been in Wheeling since pioneer times. His

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grandfather, Jack Adams, who was of Scotch-Irish an- cestry, was born at Wheeling in 1837, and spent all his life there. For many years he was a mail clerk on Ohio and Mississippi river steamboats. He died at Wheeling in 1891. Jack Adams married Emma MeNell, who was born at Wheeling in 1845, and is still living on Wheeling Island. Their son, Archie L. Adams, was born in March, 1866, at Wheeling, and has spent his life in that vicinity. He was first employed by a Wheeling druggist, Alexander Young, but in 1891 moved out into the country, seven miles from Wheeling on the New Bethany Pike, near Clin- ton, and for several years conducted a general store there. In 1898 he returned to Wheeling, where for a short time he was employed by the Traction Company, and since then has been in merchandising, and now has charge of the clothing department of Wheeling's great department store of Watkins & Company. His home is at 28 Zane Avenue. A. L. Adams is a democrat and a member of the Presby- terian Church. He married Effie Russell Updegraff, who was born at Wheeling, June 19, 1864. The Updegraffs were a family of Holland Dutch ancestry, descended from Peter Updegraff, who settled in Pennsylvania in Colonial times. The maternal grandfather of R. U. Adams was Israel Updegraff, a native of Pennsylvania, who went to Wheeling when a young man and was in the lumber busi- ness there the rest of his life. He married Letitia Ram- mage, who was born near Wheeling, October 8, 1828, and is still living, at the age of ninety-three, at St. Clairsville, Ohio. Archie L. Adams and wife were the parents of five children. Russell U .; Jack R., who was a first lieutenant in the Air Service during the war and now lives with his parents and is an employe of the Baltimore & Ohio Rail- road Company; Reed Mccullough Baird, a cadet in the Annapolis Naval Academy; Eleanor, who died at the age of five years; and Lawrence, who died when three years old.

Russell Updegraff Adams lived until he was ten years of age with his parents in the country near Wheeling, at- tended the rural schools of Ohio County, and completed the eighth grade in the Madison School on Wheeling Is- land. He was in the Wheeling High School through the sophomore year, but in 1901 left school and the following ten years was an employe of the National Tube Company. He was assistant storekeeper when he resigned, and the next two years he was chief clerk for the J. E. Moss Iron Works of Wheeling. Then for a year he was secretary and a stockholder of the Saturn Foundry & Machine Company at Wheeling, after which for six months he returned to the Moss Iron Works as purchasing agent.

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History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 3, Part 53

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