History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 3, Part 56

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Harry Edward Cragg attended the public schools of Charleston, including the high school, after which he pur- sued a one-year course at the Maryland State College, Col- lege Park, Maryland. Later he was a student of Bliss Electrical School, Washington, D. C., from which he was graduated with the class of 1912, receiving the degree of Electrical Engineer. In 1912 he accepted a position with the Virginia Electrical Machine Company at Charleston, re- maining with this concern for six months, and was then with the West Virginia Inspection Bureau at Charleston for a period of five years. Later he received an offer of a position with the Standard Fire Insurance Company of Hartford, Connecticut, and upon his acceptance thereof was made special agent for West Virginia, Ohio and Ken- tucky, with headquarters at Charleston. He was with this concern for one year, and June 8, 1918, enlisted in the United States Navy and was sent to Norfolk, Virginia, where he was made a machinist's mate, second class. After two weeks he was transferred to Philadelphia, where he remained for one month, and then to New York City, where he was stationed until January, 1919, when he was mus- tered out as chief machinist's mate. During all this time he was attending the Officers' Material School, engineering department. In January, 1919, Mr. Cragg came to Hunt- ington and secured a position with the Fidelity Insurance Agency of Huntington, of which he was made secretary in March, 1919, a position which he still retains. His offices consist of a suite of rooms at No. 1028 Fourth Avenue. He has increased the business of his company materially in his secretarial capacity, and is accounted one of the skilled and thoroughly experienced insurance men of his

city. Mr. Cragg is a democrat in his political convictions, while his religious faith makes him an Episcopalian. He is fraternally affiliated with Huntington Lodge No. 313, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and he also holds membership in Huntington Post No. 6, American Legion; the Guyan Country Club and the Huntington Chamber of Commerce.

In February, 1918, Mr. Cragg married Miss Edna Mc- Gee Cole, daughter of Charles F. and Oley (McGee) Cole, residents of Huntington, where Mr. Cole is an oil operator. Mr. and Mrs. Cragg have one daughter, Edna Cole, born February 8, 1919.

MATHEW MISER. There has been no lengthy interval since he was thirteen years old when Mathew Miser has not been identified with some useful occupation or busi- ness in the City of Huntington. His early experience was in the railroad shops, and then for a long period of years was on the road as a commercial salesman. His business today is the public business of the city, as commissioner of streets and sewers.

Mr. Miser is a native of Cabell County, born at Le Sage, September 18, 1879. His grandfather, John Miser, was a native of Pennsylvania, and as a young man removed to Germano, Ohio, where he owned and operated a large farm until his death. Andrew Jackson Miser, father of the city commissioner of Huntington, was born at Ger- mano, Ohio, in 1840, was reared and married there, and as a young man enlisted in the Sixth Ohio Infantry, and served as a Union soldier until the close of war. In the fall of 1865 he married, and then located at Millersport, Ohio, where he conducted a general blacksmith and wagon making shop. In the early '70s he came to Cabell County, West Virginia, continued his trade at Le Sage, and on March 20, 1891, removed to Huntington, where shortly aft- erward he was elected justice of the peace, and served that office for about ten years, until his death on May 27, 1901. He was a man of substantial character, business-like and efficient in everything he undertook and popular as well. He was a republican, a member of the German Lutheran Church, was a charter member of Huntington Lodge No. 313, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and was the first member of that lodge to die. His first wife, whom he married in Ohio, was Miss Zeller, a native of Jefferson County, that state. She died at Le Sage, West Virginia and of her six children the four now living are: Andrew C., a blacksmith of Huntington; Charles, a machinist at Huntington; Commodore Hall, a molder living at Cleveland; and Mary, wife of William M. Lake, a painter in the coach department of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad at Hunting. ton. In 1877 Andrew J. Miser married at Le Sage Miss Sarah Johnson, who was born in Cabell County in 1857, and is now living at Huntington. She became the mother of four children: Mathew; James G., a plumber who died at Hunt ington in 1921, at the age of thirty-nine; Harry Blaine clerk at Huntington; and Robert E., who died at Hunting ton in 1917, at the age of twenty-two, was a pipe fitter ant had charge of a crew of men for the Westinghouse Company during the construction of the Huntington shops of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad.

Mathew Miser attended school at Le Sage, and was abou twelve years of age when the family moved to Huntington The following year he began earning his own living, and for six years worked in the shops of the Chesapeake ¿ Ohio and for two years longer in the Huntington plan of the American Car & Foundry Company, For a year o so after working hours he devoted his time to the study o pharmacy, and he had practical employment as pharmacis for three years in the drug store of C. A. Yates at Hunt ington. Then he went on the road as a traveling salesmar as representative for J. N. Murdoch, wholesale druggist o Parkersburg. For this firm he covered an extensive terr: tory in the southern part of the state for ten years and nin months. He resigned to assist in organizing the Hunt ington Drug Company, and while the organization wa underway he served as treasurer during 1913, but whe the business was established he resigned that office to g on the road as its traveling representative, again cover

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ing Southern West Virginia and built up an extensive clien- tele for the company. He remained a member of the board of directors.

Mr. Miser was drafted for the municipal service of Hunt- ington in 1918, and elected commissioner of streets and sewers, public utilities and public buildings and public grounds. He entered the office for a term of three years in June, 1918. In 1919 the city charter was amended, changing it from a non-partisan to a partisan form of gov- ernment. In 1921 Mr. Miser was made commissioner of streets and sewers for a term of one year, which expires the second Monday in June, 1922. Under the new charter there is another commissioner for public utilities and pub- lie buildings. Mr. Miser has his offices in the city hall. He was a member of the last city council before the adop- tion of the commission form of government in 1909.

Mr. Miser is a republican, is on the Official Board of the First Methodist Episcopal Church of Huntington, is affiliated with Western Star Lodge No. 1I, A. F. and A. M., Huntington Lodge No. 6, R. A. M. Huntington Commandery No. 9, K. T., Huntington Lodge of Perfection No. 4 of the Scottish Rite, and Beni-Kedem Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Charleston. He also belongs to Huntington Council No. 53, United Commercial Travelers, Huntington Camp No. 8373, Modern Woodmen of America, and Hunt- ington Lodge, Ancient Order of United Workmen. He is a member of the Huntington Kiwanis Club. Mr. Miser has acquired considerable real estate in the city and county, and his home is a modern residence at 512 Fourth Street.

On March 27, 1904, at Ironton, Ohio, he married Miss Erma Messenger, daughter of Hiram and Margaret (Mc- Whorter) Messenger. Her mother lives at Huntington, where her father, who was a carpenter, died. Mrs. Miser finished her education in Marshall College at Huntington. They have one child, John Allen, born April 18, 1906.

ROBERT FERGUSON ADAMS is a native of Lawrence County, Ohio, having been born at Ironton, June 2, 1874. He comes of distinguished old stock, his father, Hamlin Miller Adams, being a direct descendant of the famous old Adams family of Massachusetts, and also of General Tup- per, renowned Indian fighter of pioneer days. The pater- nal grandfather of Hamlin M. Adams was a cousin of John Quincy Adams, and his grandmother, Luvica Tupper, was a niece of General Tupper. Volney Adams, the pa- ternal grandfather of Robert F. Adams, came to the Mus- kingum Valley from Massachusetts and settled at Marietta, Ohio, where Hamlin M. Adams, the father of Robert F. Adams, was born. Later the family removed to a point near Beverley, Ohio, where Volney Adams engaged in farm- ing. He died in the evening of life, in the State of Wash- ington.

Hamlin Miller Adams was born in 1840 and died in March, 1905, at the age of sixty-five years. He spent his boyhood days upon the farm. He received his education at Marietta College, from which institution he was grad- uated in 1866. In the winter of 1863 he left college to enter the Union Army, remaining therein until the close of the war. In the fall of 1864 he was severely wounded in a skirmish at City Point, now Petersburg, Virginia. He returned to college in 1865 and graduated therefrom in 1866, having received a good classical education. Several years later his alma mater conferred upon him the hon- orary degree of Master of Arts. In 1867 he entered Lane Seminary at Cincinnati for the study of theology, but be- ing without funds and too proud-spirited to accept aid he left the seminary and engaged in teaching at Ironton, Ohio, being connected with the public schools at that point. Later he left the schools and became editor of the Ironton Journal. Still later, in 1877, he became president of Au- gusta College, Augusta, Kentucky, removing from thence to Huntington, West Virginia, in 1879. Here he established a private school, but later disposed of it to enter the gro- cery business in Huntington with his brother Gus M. Adams, under the firm name of Adams & Brother. He took a prominent part in the political affairs of the state, being a staunch republican in politics, and in 1889 was appointed postmaster of Huntington by President Harri-

son. It was under his administration that free delivery service of mail matter was begun in Huntington. He was an elder in the First Presbyterian Church and a member of the Odd Fellows and the Masonic fraternity. In 1873, at Ironton, Ohio, he was united in marriage with Miss Jennie Ferguson, daughter of James M. and Elizabeth J. (Wood) Ferguson, the latter of whom survives and is a resident of Los Angeles, California. Miss Jennie Ferguson was born in 1852. Four children resulted from this union: Robert Ferguson, of this review; Augustus Hamlin, of Huntington, a merchandise broker specializing in mining machinery ; Frances, a sister, who is unmarried and resides with her wid- owed mother; and Norton Meredith, who is engaged in the newspaper business at New Orleans, Louisiana.

Robert Ferguson Adams received a high school education in the public schools of Huntington, but was obliged to leave school on account of his health shortly before the completion of his senior year. In the fall of 1892, at the age of eighteen, he became a letter carrier at Huntington, having worked his way up to this position, starting as er- rand boy, then working as special delivery messenger and night clerk at the Post Office. He occupied the position of a letter carrier for eighteen years, during which time he rose from the lowest paid to the highest salaried position attainable in this branch of the postal service. In 1904 he became interested in a small weekly newspaper estab- lished in Huntington, with which he acted as advertising manager, giving to this work such of his time not required for his postal duties. Later he disposed of his interest in this publication and devoted such spare time as was available to the study and practice of the work of an advertising agent. In 1910 he resigned his position with the Post Office department to engage in a mercantile business, with which he was identified for about one year, having carried on simultaneously his advertising business. In 1911 he severed his connection with all other business ventures to devote his time exclusively to his chosen profession of advertising. In 191I he founded the Adams Advertising Agency, the pioneer enterprise of its kind at Huntington, which under his management and direction has attained the position of leadership in its field, he having been engaged in the study and practice of advertising since 1907. His plant and offices are located in the Miller-Ritter Building, Huntington, where he plans and executes advertising cam- paigns, places accounts in newspapers and magazines, does commercial multigraphing and direct-by-mail advertising, and handles theatre and screen advertising.

Mr. Adams is a republican. With his family he belongs to the First Presbyterian Church of Huntington, in which he is an elder. He is a thirty-second degree Mason, be- longing to Huntington Lodge No. 53, A. F. and A. M., and to West Virginia Consistory No. 1 of Wheeling, and being secretary of the Scottish Rite bodies of Huntington. He is also a member of Beni-Kedem Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S., of Charleston, of Marshall Lodge No. 12I, I. O. O. F., of Huntington, of the Guyan Country Club, and of the Rotary Club of Huntington, in which he has held the post of sec- retary since 1916. During the great World war Mr. Adams took an active part in all local war movements, Liberty Loan drives, etc. He was chairman of the U. S. Navy Local Advisory Committee, and chairman of the War Sav- ings Advertising Committee of Cabell County, a capacity in which he handled and produced the advertising for the sale of War Savings Stamps throughout the county. For his work in this capacity Mr. Adams received letters of the highest commendation from the National War Savings Advertising Burean and the bureau drafted for reproduc- tion nationally and for the assistance of other War Sav- ings advertising committees, a numerous portion of the ad- vertising matter having been prepared by Mr. Adams.

In 1895 Mr. Adams entered Marshall College for addi- tional study, arranging his daily occupation so as to be able to engage in the classes in the branches of study de- sired. It was during this year that he met Miss Mamie Baker, a daughter of Dr. Morgan and Annie (Marcum) Baker, the latter of whom resides at Huntington, where Doctor Baker, now deceased, was a well-known physician and surgeon. Miss Baker graduated from Marshall College

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in 1895 and was united in matrimony to Mr. Adams in April, 1898, shortly after the recovery of Mr. Adams from a sickness of nearly a year, which resulted from injuries received in the letter carrier service. Two daughters have blessed this union: Mary Elisabeth and Virginia, the for- mer of whom graduated from Wooster College, Wooster, Ohio, in 1922, with the degree of Bachelor of Arts, and the latter of whom is a student at the same college.

PURLA V. BESWICK, administrator of the estate of his father, the late Samuel Beswick, incidentally has the active management of the substantial lumber business which was established by his father in the City of Huntington and which is still conducted under the title of Sam Beswick, which had been adopted by the father.

Mr. Beswick was boru in Gallia County, Ohio, February 10, 1878. His father, Samuel Beswick, was born at Stock- port, Morgan County, that state, May 14, 1855, and died at Huntington, West Virginia, December 2, 1921. Samuel Beswick was reared and educated in his native place and was a young man when he removed to Gallia County, Ohio. At Pomeroy, Meigs County, that state, his marriage oc- curred and he was thereafter identified with operations in the oil fields of that county until his removal to Marietta, Ohio, where he found employment in a coopering estab- lishment, as did he later at New Brighton, Pennsylvania. In 1877 he returned to Gallia County, Ohio, where he was engaged in farm enterprise until the following year, when he came to West Virginia and engaged in farming near Greenbotton, Cabell County. There he continued his suc- cessful operations until January, 1883, when he removed with his family to Huntington and entered the employ of the Ensign Manufacturing Company, the title of which is now the American Car & Foundry Company. In 1886 he here established himself in business as a contractor and builder, and with this enterprise he continued his active alliance until 1892, when he founded the retail lumber business which is still conducted under his name and which he developed into one of the most substantial and impor- tant enterprises of its kind in the city. He erected his office building on Fourteenth Street, between Second and Third avenues, and the lumber warehouses extend from the corner of Fourteenth Street and Second Avenue for a dis- tance of 210 feet to the east of Fourteenth Street, on Sec- ond Avenue, and 140 feet on Fourteenth Street. Mr. Bes- wick was a loyal and public-spirited citizen and aggressive and successful business man, was a democrat in politics, and he served as a member of the City Council of Hunting- ton from 1895 to 1898. He was affiliated with Huntington Lodge No. 64, I. O. O. F .; Huntington Lodge No. 33, Knights of Pythias; Huntington Camp No. 5257, M. W. A .; and with the local organization of the Improved Or- der of Red Men, besides which he was an active and pop- ular member of the Huntington Chamber of Commerce. His widow, whose maiden name was Augusta Kuhn and who still resides at Huntington, was born in Washington County, Ohio, May 14, 1855. Of their children the first- born is Clyda, who remains with her widowed mother; the subject of this sketch was the next in order of birth and is the only son; and Addie is the wife of K. A. Runion, of Huntington.

Purla V. Beswick supplemented the discipline of the Huntington public schools by attending Marshall College, in which he continued his studies until he had partially completed the work of his senior year. He left college in 1895 and became actively associated with his father's lum- ber business, his experience thus fortifying him effectively when he was called upon to assume the active management of the business upon the death of his father. He is found loyally aligned in the ranks of the democratic party, is an active member of the Huntington Chamber of Commerce, and is affiliated with Huntington Camp No. 5257, Modern Woodmen of America; Huntington Lodge No. 313, B. P. O. E .; and with the local organization of the lumbermen's fraternity, the Concatenated Order of Hoo Hoos. He is a member of Central Christian Church, and his wife is a member of the Fifth Avenue Baptist Church. In 1922 he completed the erection of his handsome and modern resi-

dence on Fifth Avenue, in one of the most attractive resi- dential sections of the city.

November 17, 1903, recorded the marriage of Mr. Bes- wick and Miss Annette Norton, who was born in Kanawha County, this state, October 14, 1880, and whose death oc- curred July 23, 1909, no children having been born of this union. On the 13th of September, 1918, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Beswick and Miss Blanche Rogers, daughter of Samuel Rogers, who is living retired at Mount Sterling, Kentucky, his wife being deceased. Mrs. Beswick was born near Mount Sterling, Kentucky, August 14, 1886, and was reared and educated in the fine old Blue Grass State and in Marshall College. She is the gracious and popular chatelaine of the beautiful home at Huntington, and is actively identified with the representative social life of the community.

Samuel Beswick, grandfather of the subject of this re- view, was born in Stockport, England, and died at Stock- port, Ohio, September 22, 1867, he having been a young man when he came to the United States and settled at Stock- port, Ohio, where he became a pioneer merchant and hotel proprietor, the owner of a wharfboat, a contractor in the construction of county roads, and a promoter in the local oil fields. The maiden name of his wife was Emily Thorni- ley, and she likewise died at Stockport. The great-grand- parents, James Beswick and Elizabeth Gaywood Beswick, were born in England and came to this country in 1818.

JOSEPH GIBBS GARDINER. One of the well-known insur- ance men of Huntington is Joseph Gibbs Gardiner, mana- ger of the Consolidated Insurance Agency. His connection with this position has gained him a wide acquaintance, among whom his genial disposition aud loyalty have made him a general favorite. A peculiar and particular genius is necessary to the man who would acquire success in the insurance field. The business is like unto no other, and many men who have risen to prominence in other lines have scored naught but failures in insurance. Mr. Gardiuer pos- sesses the necessary qualities of acumen, a pleasing person- ality, perseverance and an insight into human nature. With these he has achieved a worth-while success.

Mr. Gardiner was born at Augusta, Georgia, January 14, 1882, a son of Gibbs and Margaret (DeCottes) Gardiner. His father, also a native of Augusta, was a college gradu- ate and a man of superior education, who at times fol- lowed the profession of law aud also acted in an editorial capacity on several newspapers at Augusta, where he passed his entire life and where his death occurred in 1891. He was a democrat in his political sympathies. Reared in the faith of the Presbyterian Church, in later years he joined the Roman Catholic Church. Mr. Gardiner married Mar- garet DeCottes, who was born at Hamburg, South Carolina, and died at Augusta, Georgia, in 1891. They were the par- ents of three children: Margaret, who died at Augusta, Georgia, aged thirty-nine years, as the wife of James M. Triplett, now a traveling salesman of Columbia, South Carolina; Joseph Gibbs, of this review; and Susanna, the wife of Dr. Joseph B. Palmer, a well-known physician and surgeon of Thomasville, Georgia.

Joseph Gibbs Gardiner attended the public schools of Augusta, but was only nine years of age when his parents died, and two years later, when only eleven years old, left school and went to work as office boy in a fire insurance of- fice. Later he was advanced to clerk, and remained with the Allen Agency for a period of fifteen years, during which time through integrity, industry and fidelity he worked his way steadily upward to the position of manager. In 1908 he became special agent aud adjuster for the Con- tinental Insurance Company of New York, and in this double capacity traveled through South Carolina, Georgia and Florida until 1918. In that year he formed a connec- tion with the Underwriters Inspection Bureau, with head- quarters at Atlanta, as special agent, and remained with that concern until October, 1921, covering South Carolina Florida and Virginia. In October, 1921, he came to Hunt ington, West Virginia, as manager for the Consolidated Insurance Agency, a position which he still retains, his offices being situated at Rooms 918 and 919 Robson-Pritch

Sam Keswick

Al Beswich.

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ard. His territory not only covers the State of West Virginia, but extends into neighboring states. During the period of his management the business of the company has grown to substantial proportions, and Mr. Gardiner has fully maintained the reputation which he established in other fields of endeavor prior to locating at Hunting- ton. Mr. Gardiner is a democrat in politics, and a mem- ber of the Johnson Memorial Methodist Episcopal Church, South, of Huntington. He belongs to Huntington Lodge No. 53, A. F. and A. M., and Feramorz Grotto No. 1 of Huntington, and is also a director of the Huntington Ma- sonic Club.

C. HARRISON SMITH. Ever since 1914 one of the lead- ing contributors to the upbuilding and development of the City of Huntington has been C. Harrison Smith, a promi- nent building contractor. A man of long and comprehen- sive experience in his line, Mr. Smith has brought to his labors an enthusiasm and care for detail that have materi- ally contributed to the architectural improvement of the city, while as a practical business man he has worked his way to the forefront among the progressive men of his time and locality.

Mr. Smith was born at Shrewsbury, York County, Penn- sylvania, November 3, 1873, and is a son of Henry N. and Mary A. (Hildebrand) Smith. His grandfather, Henry Smith, was born in 1820, in Westphalia, Germany, and im- migrated to the United States at the age of thirty-four years, shortly after his marriage. He settled in York County, Pennsylvania, where he became a successful farmer, and died at York, in that county, in 1893. Mr. Smith mar- ried a Miss Nieman, who was also a native of Germany, and who died in York County.

Henry N. Smith was born in 1844, in Westphalia, Ger- many, and was ten years of age when brought by his par- ents to the United States, his boyhood home being York County, Pennsylvania, where he was reared and secured his education in the public schools. He was married there and took up his residence at Shrewsbury, where he succeeded in the building and contracting business, and in 1892 came to Ceredo, Wayne County, West Virginia, where he fol- lowed the same line of business. In 1899 he went to New- port News, Virginia, where he remained two years, and then returned to West Virginia and settled at Morgantown, where he died in the following year. He was a republican, was fraternally affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and his religious connection was with the Lutheran Church. Mr. Smith married Miss Mary A. Hilde- brand, who was born in 1846, in York County, Pennsyl- vania, and died at Ceredo, West Virginia, in 1914, and they became the parents of the following children: Milton A., who is proprietor of a furniture establishment at Johns- town, Pennsylvania; Edward E., the proprietor of a motion picture theatre at Ceredo, West Virginia; Cora, deceased; C. Harrison, of this notice; Charlotte, the wife of B. E. Morse, an electrical engineer of Detroit, Michigan; William W., an attorney of Huntington; Jesse B., a railroad em- ploye of Roanoke, Virginia; August, who conducts a con- servatory of music at Washington, D. C., and Charles J., who died at the age of twenty-one years at Morgantown, West Virginia.

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History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 3, Part 56

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