History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 3, Part 62

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Mr. Gohen's grandfather was Thomas A. Gohen, who was born in Ireland in 1832 and as a young man came to Amer- ica and settied at Cincinnati. He was a chemist by profes- sion and was associated with the Marsh & Harwood Chemi- ical Company of Cincinnati, where he lived until his death in 1900. He married Anna De Coursy, who was born in Franee in 1834, and died at Cincinnati in 1902. They reared a family of three danghters and five sons. There are three sons still living: James A., whose record follows; David M., secretary of the trustees of the Sinking Fund of Cin- cinnati; and George A., in the insurance and real estate business at Cincinnati. One of the deceased daughters was Elizabeth, wife of the late Stark Arnold, who was a nephew of Stonewall Jackson and was a prominent West Virginia

Samuel A. Powell

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attorney and afterward a minister of the Methodist Church. Their son, Gohen C. Arnold, is now president of the State Senate of West Virginia.

James A. Gohen, father of the Huntington banker, was born in Cincinnati May 5, 1849, was reared there, married in Aurora, Indiana, and was a carriage manufacturer at Aurora and other places, and in 1884 established his home in Huntington, West Virginia, where for twenty years he was connected with the motive power department of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad. In 1904 he removed to In- dianapolis, where he was with the motive power depart- ment of the Big Four Railroad until he retired in 1914. He is still living in Indianapolis. James A. Gohen married Malvina Fenton Marsh, who was born at Aurora, Indiana, September 8, 1852, and died at Indianapolis in December, 1920.

Charles Marsh Gohen, only child of his parents, was born at Aurora, Indiana, September 18, 1876, and has lived at Huntington since he was eight years of age. He at- tended the public schools of this eity until at the age of fourteen he took up his banking career. Besides his office as the executive head of the Huntington National Bank he is president of the Clearing House Association of Hunting- ton, is president of the West Virginia Paving and Pressed Brick Company of Huntington, and vice president of the Fesenmeier Packing Company of Huntington. He is a mem- ber of the West Virginia State and American Bankers Asso- ciation, is a democrat, a vestryman in the Episcopal Church, a member of the Rotary Club, Guyandotte Club, and Guyan Country Club of Huntington. During the World war he was County chairman for the War Savings drive, also an ac- tive factor in filling the local quota for the Liberty Loans. Mr. Gohen owns a fine home at 1418 Fifth Avenue.

June 14, 1906, at Huntington, he married Miss Mary Elizabeth Emmons, daughter of Carlton Delos and Minnie (Gibson) Emmons, residents of Huntington, where her fa- ther is president of the Emmons-Hawkins Hardware Com- pany. Mrs. Gohen is a granddaughter of Delos E. Emmons, who was commissioned by his brother-in-law, Collis P. Hunt- ington, of New York City, to lay out the City of Hunting- ton, and he was active in the upbuilding of this West Vir- ginia railroad and commercial center. Mrs. Gohen is a graduate of the Hollins Seminary of Roanoke, Virginia.

R. P. ALESIIIRE, representative of Cabell County in the Legislature, is one of Huntington's prominent financiers, head of a real estate and investment brokerage business in that city.

Mr. Aleshire was born at Gallipolis, Ohio, and his grand- father, Reuben Aleshire, was a pioneer in that city on the Ohio River, going from Luray, Page County, Virginia. He was a flour miller at Gallipolis, where he lived until his death at the age of seventy-five. He married Margaret Shepard, who was born in 1818 and died at Gallipolis No- vember 19, 1896, at the age of seventy-eight.

Edward S. Aleshire, father of R. P. Aleshire, was born at Gallipolis in 1841, and as a young man enlisted from that city in Company F of the Second Ohio Heavy Artil- lery and served all through the war. He was also engaged in the flour milling industry at Gallipolis, but about 1890 moved to Huntington, West Virginia, and became manager of Armour & Company's branch house in that city. He died at Huntington January 3, 1905. He was a democrat, a vestryman of the Episcopal Church and affiliated with the Masonie fraternity. Edward S. Aleshire married Justine Onderdonk, a native of New York State, now living at Huntington. She became the mother of seven children: Walter, who died at Gallipolis at the age of seventeen; Henry O., vice president of the Huntington National Bank; Edward S., secretary and treasurer of the Standard Print- ing Company at Huntington ; R. P. Aleshire; Halsey W., a merchandise broker at Huntington; Morris B., an artist in New York City; and Justine, who died in infancy.

R. P. Aleshire graduated from the Gallipolis High School in 1889, and also attended the Gallia Academy in that city for two years. After completing his education his early experience was in banking, and he was bookkeeper and

subsequently promoted to assistant cashier of the Ohio Val- ley Bank of Gallipolis. He also became interested in poli- tics while in Ohio, and in 1901 was democratic candidate for state treasurer, but was defeated in the republican landslide of that year.

Mr. Aleshire removed to Huntington in 1905, and has since been in the real estate and investment brokerage busi- ness. He is president of the Aleshire-Harvey Company, real estate dealers and brokers, and is a director in several real estate organizations. He is secretary-treasurer of the Mutual Land Company, Home Land Company, Steel Prod- uets Company and the Boone Block Mining Company, all Huntington business organizations.

Mr. Aleshire was elected to represent Cabell County in the Legislature in November, 1920, on the democratic ticket. During the session of 1921 he ably represented his constitu- ents, and was a valued member of the committees on finance, mines and mining and labor. He is a member of the Epis- copal Church, of Huntington Lodge No. 313, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and is past exalted ruler of his former home lodge in Gallipolis. He is a member of the Rotary Club, Guyandotte Club and Guyan Country Club of Huntington. Mr. Aleshire is unmarried.

BOYD JARRELL. The influence and service of Boyd Jar- rell that have combined to make him one of the widely known citizens of Southern West Virginia have been chiefly exercised in the educational field and in journalism. For a number of years he has been connected with the newspa- per life of Huntington, and is editor of the Herald-Dis- patch of that city.

Mr. Jarrell was born in Wayne County, West Virginia, May 16, 1875. The name Jarrell is one of the oldest and best known in this section of the state. His great-grand- father moved here from Eastern Kentucky very early in the nineteenth century, and was a slave holding farmer and planter. John Jarrell, grandfather of the Huntington edi- tor, was born in Pike County, Eastern Kentucky, in 1800, but he lived on the old plantation in Wayne County for eighty years, dying there in 1884. Besides his farming operations he was more widely known as a pioneer Bap- tist minister, and he performed all the duties of a minister of the Gospel throughout his section of the state. He was greatly beloved for this work and his character. He mar- ried Elizabeth Bromley, who was born in Wayne County in 1813, and died at the home of her son, John Jarrell, in Wayne County in 1898. Her father, William Bromley, was one of the very first settlers in Wayne County and was a slave holding farmer.

The father of Boyd Jarrell was also named John, and he was born in Wayne County, near the confluence of the Levisay and Tug Fork rivers in 1836. He spent all his life in that county, and was both a farmer and timber man. For twenty-four years he was a member of the Wayne County Court, was a democrat, a consistent member of the Baptist Church and the Masonic fraternity. John Jarrell, who died in 1912, married Nancy Lambert, who was born in Wayne County in 1836, and died there in August, 1903. The following is a brief record of their children: James L., formerly a gold prospector, now a fruit grower at Ash- land, Oregon; Rebecca, of Huntington, widow of Thomas Osborn, who for many years played a prominent part in the school and educational affairs in Wayne County; Belle, who lives at Ceredo in Wayne County, is the widow of Taylor Watts, a farmer; Samuel became a miner in the Northwest and died in Idaho at the age of forty; Ida, liv- ing on her ranch at Ashland, Oregon, is the widow of Will- iam A. Crandell, who died there in 1921 and had formerly been postmaster of Aberdeen, Washington; William R., a resident of Seattle, Washington and chief of the United States secret service for the states of Washington, Oregon and Alaska; Pearl, who was a lumber grader, died in Nicholas County, West Virginia, at the age of thirty-five.

Boyd Jarrell was educated in public and private schools in Wayne County, taking the branches leading up to col- lege entrance. He did his last school work as a student at the age of twenty-two. At the age of eighteen he began

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teaching, and for four years worked in the rural schools of his native county. For two years he was a teacher in private schools, and following that for two years had his first journalistic experience as editor of the Wayne News. He then resumed teaching for a year in the grade school of Effie, where he taught the high school branches. The next year he was editor of the Mingo Democrat at William- son, West Virginia, and in 1904 came to Huntington to become editor of the Dispatch, which was the first morning paper established in the city. It began publication May 26, 1904. Mr. Jarrell continued as editor of the Dispatch until the fall of 1908, and during the next two years lie was city editor of the Huntington Advertiser.

In the meantime, on January 1, 1909, a consolidation had been effected between the Herald and the Dispatch, re- sulting in the present title of the Herald-Dispatch. The Herald is one of the older papers of Huntington, estab- lished in 1891. In the fall of 1910 Mr. Jarrell returned to the Herald-Dispatch as editorial writer, and since 1911 has been editor and is also vice president of the Hunting- ton Herald Company, which owns and publishes the paper. The president of the company is David Gideon. This is the leading republican paper in Cabell County, and is a real newspaper, with circulation all over the southern counties and over a considerable area of Eastern Kentucky.

Mr. Jarrell has been in close touch with politics and pub- lic affairs, but has never sought any political office. He votes as a republican, is a member of the Baptist Church, is affiliated with Huntington Lodge No. 313, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, Huntington Rotary Club, Cabell Council No. 1998, Royal Arcanum, and Ancient Order of United Workmen. During the World war he had many duties outside of the burdens imposed upou him as a news- paper editor. He was head of the Publicity Committee of Cabell County, a member of the Four Minute Speakers Bureau, and he made specches throughout the county in be- half of the various drives.

On October 5, 1915, at Huntington, Mr. Jarrell married Miss Ella Taylor, daughter of Alfred B. and Ora (Chap- man) Taylor, residents of Huntington. Her father is a farm owner and also has some valuable oil royalties. Mrs. Jarrell is a graduate of the Huntington High School and finished her education in Marshall College. Two children have been born to their union: Boyd, Jr., on October 31, 1916, and Nancy, born August 17, 1921.

COLEMAN A. STAATS. The success which has attended the career of Coleman A. Staats, of Huntington, is directly traceable to his possession and exercise of qualities which, when properly utilized, seldom fail of the attainment of position and prosperity. Good business judgment and a capacity for sustained endeavor are chief among these, to which he adds a pleasing personality and the happy faculty of making and keeping friends among worth-while people. The president of the Fidelity Insurance Agency is a native of Ravenswood, Jackson County, West Virginia, born Oc- tober 17, 1887, a son of Coleman A. and Emma (Keeney) Staats.

Coleman A. Staats, the elder, was born in Virginia (now West Virginia), in 1849, and was reared and educated in Jackson and Roane counties, in the latter of which he was married. For a short time following his marriage he re- sided at Spencer, where lie carried on general merchandis- ing, and then moved to Ravenswood, where he continued his mercantile operations, became prosperous and highly respected, and died in 1897. A republican in politics, he took an interest in political affairs and was well known in public matters, and for a number of years served in the capacity of city recorder of Ravenswood. He was a faith- ful member and active worker of the Presbyterian Church, and was a deacon thereof for a long period. Fraternally he was affiliated with the Masonic order. Mr. Staats mar- ried Miss Emma Keeney, who was born in Jackson County, West Virginia, in 1854, and survives him as a resident of Huntington. They became the parents of the following chil- ' dren: Ora, unmarried, who is treasurer of Marshall Col- lege and a resident of Huntington; Daisy, the wife of

James F. Holswade, a retired merchant of Huntington; Ada, the wife of Isaac J. Osbun, district manager for the General Explosive Company of Birmingham, Alabama; Kathryn, the wife of Ray B. Cummings, a lumber manu- facturer of Buffalo, New York; and Coleman A.

Coleman A. Staats attended the public schools of Ravens- wood up to his senior high school year, after which he pur- sued a course of study at Marshall College, an institution which he left in 1907. At that time he took a position with J. W. Valentine, who conducted an establishment han- dling ladies' ready-to-wear garments at Huntington, and remained in Mr. Valentine's employ for seven years, dur- ing which time he worked his way up through industry and fidelity to the post of buyer in the notion department. He had been frugal and careful, and with the small capital which he had saved embarked in the insurance business in 1914, operating a venture under the name of the Staats Insurance Agency. In this enterprise he proved successful, and in 1918 bought out the business of two other agencies and formed the Fidelity Insurance Agency, which is incor- porated under the laws of the State of West Virginia, the officers being: President, C. A. Staats; vice president, T. W. Harvey; secretary, H. E. Cragg; and treasurer, J. H. LeBlanc. The offices are situated in a suite of rooms lo- cated at No. 1028 Fourth Avenue. Under Mr. Staats' ca- pable and energetic management this has been built up to be the largest general insurance business in Huntington. Mr. Staats is independent in his political views, and his religious faith is that of the Presbyterian Church. He is a member of Huntington Lodge No. 53, A. F. and A. M .; West Virginia Consistory No. 1, Wheeling, thirty-second degree; and Beni-Kedem Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S., Charleston, of the Masonic order; and Huntington Lodge No. 313, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. He be- longs also to the Guyandotte Club, the Gypsy Club, the Guyan Country Club, the Rotary Club of Huntington and the Huntington Chamber of Commerce.

On September 25, 1916, Mr. Staats was united in mar- riage at Boston, Massachusetts, with Miss Nancy Campbell, daughter of Charles W. and Jennie (Ratcliff) Campbell, the latter of whom died at Baltimore, Maryland, while the former is mayor and a distinguished attorney of Hunting- ton, where he makes his home at No. 1102 Fifth Avenue. Mrs. Staats is a graduate of The Castle, an exclusive young ladies' school of Tarrytown, New York. She and her hus- band have one child, Jeau, born September 26, 1919.

WILLIAM E. TALBOTT, M. D. During a busy career as a physician and surgeon at Harrisville for forty years Doctor Talbott has had a varied program of service out- side his profession. He has served in the Legislature, has been mayor of his home city, and has borne many of the responsibilities of good citizenship there.

Doctor Talbott was born in Upshur County, Virginia, now West Virginia, September 13, 1858, son of George M. and Sarah L. (Wilson) Talbott. His parents were both natives of Upshur County, where his father was born in 1825. They grew up in the country district, had a com- mon school education, and after their marriage settled ou a farm at Princeton, where George M. Talbott eventually acquired extensive tracts of land and became a prosperous farmer. They were very devoted members of the Methodist Episcopal Church and the father was a republican. Of their eight children five are living: Perry, of Buckhan- non; William E .; Lloyd, of Alton, West Virginia; G. B., a farmer and hotel man at Frenchton, West Virginia; and G. P., a farmer.

William E. Talbott grew up on the farm and finished his literary education in the noted French Creek Academy. For several years he taught school in Upshur and Lewis counties, then took up the study of medicine, and in 1880 graduated M. D. from the College of Physicians and Sur- geons at Baltimore. For one year Doctor Talbott prac- ticed at Centerville in Upshur County, and he located at Harrisville in 1882, and from that year to the present has been the physician, friend and trusted counsellor to many of the best families in this vicinity. Doctor Talbott has

W.E. Jalbatt M.he

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one of the good homes there and has a nice suburban farm of sixteen acres.

In 1883 he married Alma Mckinney, who died nine months later, in 1884. In 1887 he married Metta L. Lam- bert. His second wife died December 27, 1918. There were no children by either marriage. Doctor Talbott is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, is a past mas- ter of Harrisville Lodge No. 98, A. F. and A. M., and is a republican in politics. He served seven years as mayor of Harrisville. He has also been a member of the Board of Health, was in the Legislature during the sessions of 1915-16, and is a stockholder in the People's Bank.

HUGH B. HAGEN, president of the corporation of Hagen, Rateliff & Company, the oldest and most substantial whole- sale grocery concern in the City of Huntington, has been a resident of Cabell County from the time of his birth. He is a representative of one of its honored pioneer families, and he has witnessed and assisted in the development of the fine industrial City of Huntington, which he has seen evolved from a corn field into a fine city of more than 50,- 000 population. His father, the late William H. Hagen, was born at Wellsburg, Brooke County Virginia now West Virginia, in the year 1823, a son of John Hagen, who was of Irish ancestry and who gained a due share of pioneer honors in what is now West Virginia. As a young man William H. Hagen came to Cabell County and engaged in the general merchandise business at Guyandotte. He mar- ried Mary, daughter of William Buffington, one of the early settlers of the county, where he became the owner of large tracts of land, including a portion of the site of the pres- ent City of Huntington. After the death of Mr. Buffing- ton this land was purchased by the late Collis P. Hunting- ton, the great railroad builder, who intended to establish here the terminus of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad. The home of William H. Hagen was situated on the Guyandotte River, in what is now the City of Huntington, and there he and his wife reared their six children. Mr. Hagen became a citizen of prominence and influence in the community, served fifteen years as president of the County Court, and on this account became widely known as Judge Hagen. He served also as a member of the City Council of Huntington in the early days, and was a director of the old Bank of Huntington, which gained the questionable distinction of having been robbed by Jesse James. He was also a director of the First National Bank. He was a great admirer of Alexander Campbell, he having been one of the early gradu- ates of Bethany College, which was founded by Mr. Camp- bell. William H. Hagen was one of the venerable and honored citizens of Huntington at the time of his death, . and his name and memory are revered in the city and county which long represented his home.

Hugh B. Hagen was born December 7, 1866, and when Huntington was founded the future city came to him rather than his having gone to the city. From the corn field and meadow he has seen every phase of the growth and develop- ment of Huntington, and his loyalty to the place and his native county has never wavered, but rather has found expression in civic liberality and effective contribution to business advancement. He completed his youthful educa- tion in Marshall College when sixteen years of age, and in 1884 he entered the service of the First National Bank of Huntington, at a time when it had only two office executives, who did all the detail work. In this institution he won advancement to the position of paying teller. In 1887 he aided in the organization of the wholesale grocery firm of Hagen, Ratcliff & Company, and he has been an influential factor in the development and upbuilding of the large and prosperous business. The concern was eventually incor- porated, as a matter of commercial and financial expediency, and he is now its president. He continues a member of the directorate of the First National Bank, and is one of the quiet, unostentatious and substantial citizens and busi- ness men who have made the name of Huntington a synonym of civic and commercial integrity and progressiveness. Mr. Hagen has received the thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite of the Masonic fraternity, is a member of the Mystic Shrine, is a democrat in politics, and he and his family hold membership in the Johnson Memorial Church. He has had

no desire for public office, but his civic loyalty has been shown by his service in past years as a member of the eity council. Mr. Hagen married Miss Etta Gaines, and they have four children.

JOHN EDWIN ROBERTSON, M. D. The fine little City of Logan, judicial center of the West Virginia county of the same name, claims Doctor Robertson as one of its repre- sentative physicians and surgeons, he having been estab- lished in practice since 1913 and his popularity and prestige being reinforced by the fact that he is a native son of Logan County. He was born at Logan on the 3d of August, 1888, and is a son of S. B. and Etta (Bryan) Robertson, both likewise natives of West Virginia. S. B. Robertson is engaged in the wholesale grocery business at Logan and is one of the leading citizens of Logan County, where he has been prominent and influential in civic affairs as well as in the domain of business enterprise. He served as sheriff of Logan County four years, 1900-1904, he and his wife are zealous members of the Presbyterian Church, and he is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity, in which he has received the thirty-second degree of the Scot- tish Rite, besides being a member of the Mystic Shrine. He is a son of John Edwin Robertson, whose widow is now a resident of the City of Huntington. The Robertson family was founded in Virginia in an early day, as was also the Bryan family. The maternal grandfather of Doctor Rob- ertson is a resident of Barbersville, Virginia, and is now venerable in years.

After attending the public schools of Logan, Doctor Robertson continued his studies in Alderson Academy, a preparatory institution at Alderson, Monroe County, and in 1909 he graduated from the Ohio Military Institute in the City of Cincinnati. In preparation for the profession of his choice he then entered the medical department of the University of Louisville, in which excellent Kentucky in- stitution he was graduated as a member of the class of 1913, he having further fortified himself while attending this school by serving one year in Mount Hope Hospital at Hunt- ington. Upon receiving his degree of Doctor of Medicine he returned to his native city, where he has since been en- gaged in active and successful practice and where he has gained specially high reputation as a surgeon of marked judgment and skill. He is a member of the surgical staff of the hospital at Logan, where most of the surgical work is assigned to him, and the demands placed upon him in this connection and in his general practice were such that he was not called into service in connection with the World war. Doctor Robertson is an active and valued member of the Logan County Medical Society and is identified also with the West Virginia State Medical Society and the American Medical Association. He and his wife are mem- bers of the Presbyterian Church in their home city.

At Louisville, Kentucky, in May, 1910, was solemnized the marriage of Doctor Robertson and Miss Helen James, daughter of A. B. and Ellen (Grey) James, both natives of the State of Indiana. Mr. James is engaged in the whole- sale grocery business at Louisville. Doctor and Mrs. Robertson have one son, John Edwin, Jr.

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History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 3, Part 62

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