History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 3, Part 63

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HARRY MAGILL VENABLE, an ex-service man who was with the Engineers in France, is an engineer by profession and training, and has been a factor in the mining development of West Virginia. He is now superintendent of the McCall Coal Company at Christian in Logan County. He opened a mine, the location being established in May, 1920, and operations beginning in October of the same year. All this work has been done under his supervision.

Mr. Venable was born at Bellview, Kentucky, just over the Ohio River from Cincinnati, October 16, 1889, and is a son of Matthew W. and Mariah (Dyer) Venable. His father, who was born in Prince Edward County, Virginia, and is now seventy-four years of age, was a youthful soldier in the Confederate army, is a graduate of the University of Virginia, a civil engineer by profession, and for many years has employed his technical abilities in the development of mines in all the important fields of West Virginia. He now resides at Charleston. He has four living sons, the oldest being associated with his father in the M. W. Venable &

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Son firm. Another son, W. W. , is chief engineer of tipple construction with the Kanawha Manufacturing Company of Charleston. C. S. Venable is a constructing engineer in the Logan field. After the death of his first wife Matthew W. Venable married Anna Byrne, daughter of Col. Ben W. Byrne. By this union there are two sons, Ben, a captain in the United States Army, and Richard, a civil engineer living at Charleston.

Harry Magill Venable received his education in the Virginia Military Institute, and on leaving school in 1909 took up construction work and had a varied experience with opportunities of travel in South and Central America and in Mexico. For a number of years he had been associated with his father at Charleston, and he was also just before the war engaged in installation work for the Lincoln Smoke- less Coal Company in Raleigh County.

In November, 1917, he enlisted at Washington in the Twenty-third Engineers, was trained at Camp Meade, Mary- land, and was overseas until June, 1919. He received his honorable discharge at Camp Sherman. He was in the St. Mihiel, the Meuse and Argonne sectors, around Chateau Thierry, and was on the seene of much of the heavy fight- ing engaged in building highways and bridges. He was dis- charged with the rank of master engineer. Mr. Venable is a member of the Elks Lodge at Hinton, and in polities is non-partisan.

JOHN B. LAING, of Lewisburg, judicial center of Greenbrier County, has made a record of constructive enterprise as a coal operator and railroad builder in West Virginia, in which state the family residence was established when he was an infant. His father, James Laing, was born and reared in Scotland, and came thence to the United States in the year 1867. In Pennsylvania this sterling young Seotsman became identified with coal-mining enterprise, and there was solemnized his marriage with Miss Susanna Kay. In 1878 they came to West Virginia and settled in Fayette County. In 1888 removal was thence made to Raleigh County, where James Laing had charge of the opening up of the mines of the Royal Coal & Coke Company, which was the first coal corporation to initiate mining operations in that county. In 1896 Mr. Laing opened the first shaft and first slope on the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad, at Sun, on Loup Creek in Fayette County. Here he organized the Sun Coal & Coke Company, and here he continued operations until 1904, when he removed to Lewisburg, his death having here occurred in 1907. He was possessed of the thrift and the mature judgment that are characteristic of the Seoteh type, and ordered his life on a lofty plane of integrity and honor-a man who was re- served, unostentatious, tolerant and kindly and animated by fine principles of personal stewardship, he having been a devout member of the Presbyterian Church, as is also his widow. Of their eight children the firstborn is Janet K .; Margaret died in infancy; and the names of the other children are here recorded in respective order of birth: John B., Thomas K., Anna J., James K., Susanna K. (wife of Dr. R. L. Speas), and Bess Belle (Mrs. Charles M. Me- Whorter).

John B. Laing was born in Mercer County, Pennsylvania, September 23, 1876, and, as before stated, was an infant at the time of the family removal to West Virginia. He re- ceived the full advantages of the public schools of this state, and at the age of twenty years became associated with his father in eoal operations. In this connection he opened the mine at Sun and the Lanark Mine on Piney Creek in Raleigh County. He remained at Sun after the removal of his parents to Lewisburg, but since selling the mine property at the former place he has maintained his home and business headquarters at Lewisburg. He has given much of his time to the development of coal proper- ties in the western part of Greenbrier County, under the corporate title of the Nelson Fuel Company and here is controlled by the company one of the best coal properties in the state, beside one of the last of the great smokeless fields to be developed, the product being a smokeless fuel of the best grade. In the development of this property it was found essential to provide a railroad outlet, and the

result was that in 1919 the Greenbrier & Eastern Railroad Company was organized, its line having been completed in 1921 and this important work having been done under the direet and effective supervision of Mr. Laing. The road is eleven miles in length and at present connects with the Sewell Valley Railroad, an independent branch of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad. This connection is at Meadow Creek. Mr. Laing erected the first all-steel tipple in Mon- roe County, it having five loading tracks (in addition to supply track) for the making of prepared coal. He is president of the Greenbrier & Eastern Railroad Company, is viee president of the Lewisburg & Ronceverte Electric Railway Company, is president of the Lewisburg Seminary, a director of the Bank of Lewisburg, and is president also of the MeKinley Land Company, the Laing Mining Com- pany, and the Craig-Giles Iron Company. It is uniformly conceded that he has done more for the development of the natural resources of Greenbrier County than has any other one man or minor group of men, and he has made definite incidental contribution to the civic and material advance- ment of the state in general.

April 20, 1898, recorded the marriage of Mr. Laing and Miss Margaret Nelson, and they became the parents of three children: Martha Spence, James and Andrew, the younger son having died in 1918, at the age of fifteen years. Mr. Laing is a Shriner Mason and a member of the Presbyterian Church.

JOHN T. SYDNOR. Though a young man, still in his early thirties, John T. Sydnor has held responsible positions with coal companies for seventeen years. He is general superin- tendent of mines Nos. 1 and 3 on Huff's Creek and No. 2 on the Guyandotte for the Mallory Coal Company, one of the largest operators in this section of Logan County. Sinee he became general superintendent he has done much to make Mallory an ideal mining town, and at the time of this writing is building a union church for the community.

He was born at Wilson, Dinwiddie County, Virginia, June 6, 1888, son of Thomas T. and Amantha (Reamis) Sydnor, natives of Dinwiddie County. His parents are still living, his father at seventy-five and his mother at seventy-three. His father became a courier for General Wise in the Con- federate army at the age of fourteen, and was only seven- teen when he was at Appomattox at the final surrender. He participated in the bloody fighting at the battle of the Crater at Petersburg, and was also at the evacuation of Richmond. After the war he continued his education witlı an academic course, and attended Hampden-Sidney College. His father, R. H. Sydnor, was a representative of the old Virginia aristocratic land holdings, planting and slave hold- ing class. Thomas T. Sydnor after leaving school returned to the farm and worked on the plantation, but soon removed to Nottoway County, and is still engaged in the general mercantile business. He is a republican and a member of the Methodist Church. He and his wife had six sons and two daughters.

John T. Sydnor graduated from high school at his home town, spent one year in Allegheny Academy at Clifton Forge, Virginia, and with that education he entered the coal fields, but as a general student along technical lines involved in the coal industry. He has taken courses with the International Correspondence School, and is still a reader of everything pertaining to the practical side of coal operation.

In 1905 he entered the employ of the Thacker Coal and Coke Company as chief pay roll clerk at their mines in Mingo County. He was there five years, following which he was office man and pay roll elerk for the Red Jacket Coal Company, then general bookkeeper and assistant to the general manager of the Alburn Coal and Coke Company, and then transferred to Freeburn in Pike County, Kentucky, where he was cashier and later superintendent of mining operations. He was superintendent and later general super- intendent for the Pond Creek Coal Company in Pike County, Kentucky. From there he came to Mallory as general super- intendent for the Mallory Coal Company in October, 1920.

Mr. Sydnor in 1912 married Blanch Ford, of Huntington. She died in 1915. In 1918 he married Hettye E. Shay,

John 12 Laing.

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daughter of A. M. Shay, of Olive Hill, Kentucky. They have one daughter, Doris. Mr. Sydnor is a member of the Masonic Lodge at Stone, Kentucky, the Royal Arch Chapter of Williamson, Huntington Commandery No. 9, K. T., Rose Croix Chapter of the Scottish Rite at Huntington, West Virginia Consistory No. 1, at Wheeling, and the Shrine at Charleston. He is also a member of the Elks, and is a democrat in politics.

HON. FRANCIS MARION REYNOLDS. A youthful attorney, with a certificate of proficiency signed by three judges at Morgantown, came to the Village of New Creek a few weeks after the close of the Civil war, and with a brief exception there has been no break in his career as lawyer, judge and man of affairs in this community. Considering the aggre- gate of his activities and achievements it is remarkable that even in such a period of years so much real work and usefulness could be credited one man. Undoubtedly, both now and for years past, Judge Reynolds has been one of the eminent men of his section of West Virginia.

Judge Reynolds was born in Taylor County, West Vir- ginia, September 18, 1843. His grandfather, Cornelius Reynolds, was one of the first settlers in that part of the state, going there when Taylor was still a part of Harrison County. He came either from Fauquier or Loudoun County, Virginia. His brother John settled on West Fork in Harri- son County about the same time, and the brothers probably made the journey over the mountains together with their families. This settlement was made about 1798. John Reynolds married Catherine Phillips, and, for his second wife, Frances Rogers. As a pioneer Cornelius Reynolds made available for cultivation some of the first wooded lands of the locality around Pruntytown, his home being a mile west of that old village. He lived there until his death in 1869, at the age of ninety-four. His father was in all probability a soldier of the Revolutionary war. Cornelius possessed a fair education. He married a Miss Ehart, and their two children were Cornelius Ehart and William. Wil- liam later became sheriff of Taylor County and finally settled near St. Louis, Missouri.

Cornelius Ehart Reynolds, father of Judge Reynolds, was born on the old farm near Pruntytown in January, 1811. He had the opportunities afforded by the common schools of his day, and his life was devoted to his farm and his live stock, and with such energy and good judgment that he accumulated a substantial competence before his death. For a number of years he was justice of the peace, was president of the County Court under the old regime, and in every way a valuable citizen of his community. He was a member of the Methodist Protestant Church. Cornelius Ehart Reynolds, who died in January, 1885, married Phoebe Ellen Smith, and her father, Rev. John Smith, was a minister of the Methodist Protestant Church, and died and is buried in the Pruntytown locality. Phoebe Reynolds died in 1890. She was always deeply interested in her church. Her children were: George W., who spent his life in Taylor County, represented the county one time in the West Vir- ginia Legislature as a democrat, and died when about eighty-one; Lemuel E., was a farmer near Pruntytown, where he died aged about seventy-one years; Delia A. lives near Pruntytown, wife of James Burnside, a farmer and stock dealer; Charles W., was a farmer and stock man at Pruntytown and a member of the Board of Education there; and Judge Francis M.

Francis M. Reynolds' youth was passed in the rural conditions that prevailed in the '40s and '60s, and the first school he attended was held in an old log cabin. Later he attended school at Pruntytown, and in 1862 entered the old academy at Morgantown. He remained there two years, and on two occasions was called out with other members of the militia to defend New Creek, now Keyser. One time the troops got about six miles from Morgantown and the other time went as far as Grafton. While at Morgantown Judge Reynolds studied law in the office of Judge Bunker, of the firm Bunker & Brown, and after completing his studies he presented himself before the three judges, Ralph Berkshire, John A. Dilley and Thomas Harrison, who examined him and signed his certificate.

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It was in June, 1865, that Judge Reynolds moved to what was still known as New Creek, then in Hampshire County, with county seat at Romney. He tried his first case at New Creek before Justice of the Peace Joseph Ritzell. Shortly afterward he removed to Romney and practiced there until Mineral County was formed by the Legislature in 1866. He then returned to New Creek, the county seat of the new county, and began practice with William Welch as a part- ner. This firm was soon dissolved, and Judge Reynolds practiced alone for a number of years, then for a time was with Judge J. T. Hoke as Reynolds & Hoke, and after that he continued his legal work alone until he went on the bench.

Judge Reynolds had the privilege of casting his first presidential vote for Abraham Lincoln in 1864. He is now one of the oldest republican voters in the state, and bas done a great deal of work in behalf of the party during many campaigns. He served two terms as prosecuting at- torney of Mineral County, being elected in 1872 and again in 1888, each term being for four years. At the same time and for twelve years altogether he was prosecuting attorney for Grant County, and while in that office he took a promi- nent part in the county seat fight which terminated in favor of Petersburg. In 1894 he was elected a member of the House of Delegates, and in 1900 was again sent to the House and re-elected in 1902. In each term he was chairman of the finance committee and a member of the judiciary committee and was designated floor leader of the House of his party. He twice voted for Stephen B. Elkins for United States Senator. As chairman of the finance com- mittee he devoted much of his time in study to the new tax laws enacted while he was in the Legislature.

A long and active association as a lawyer and its public service admirably qualified him for his next important post of duty, as judge of the Sixteenth Judicial Circuit. This was a new district recently formed, comprising the counties of Mineral, Tucker and Grant. He was elected judge of this court in 1904, and in 1912 was re-elected in spite of the sweeping democratic victory of that year. His service on the bench covered a period of sixteen years, and when he retired in December, 1920, he at once resumed his law practice, and though now in the shadow of his eightieth year, his intellectual vigor is apparently undimmed.

Judge Reynolds has been a member of the council and mayor of Keyser, and while he was on the Board of Educa- tion the first school house was erected in Keyser. He was once nominated for Congress, and made the campaign against William L. Wilson, the father of the Wilson tariff bill. He was republican nominee for judge of the Supreme Court of Appeals in 1890, when the republicans were in the minority. He served one term as a member of the Repub- lican State Executive Committee, and was a delegate to the national convention of 1896 when Major Mckinley was nominated at St. Louis. He was a member of the platform committee and was one of the seven members of that com- mittee of more than fifty who voted in favor of the gold standard. Judge Reynolds has been a member of the Meth- odist Episcopal Church since 1870, for half a century has held the post of steward and for fifty-one years continuously has been superintendent of the Sunday school. His only fraternity is the National Union.

His business enterprise, directed always on a high plane of public spirit, is an important addition to his record as a lawyer and public servant. The old Town of New Creek was renamed Keyser in 1873 in honor of William Keyser, of Baltimore, then a vice president of the Baltimore & Ohio Railway. Judge Reynolds was one of the promoters of the original Keyser Bank, opened in 1887, served as its presi- dent, and in 1902 became president of the First National Bank, which succeeded the old institution. He has been president of this national bank for twenty years. In 1894 he helped organize the Keyser Electric Light Company and became its president; was one of the promoters of the Potomac Milling and Ice Company; helped organize the Piedmont Grocery Company in 1903, and is president and director; was an organizer of the Siever Hardware Com- pany and became one of its directors. He built the Rey- nolds Hotel, the leading public house in Keyser, also the

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Post Office Building and several other business sections and a number of residences. His home is one of the more substantial residences of the city and occupies a conspicuous site. Judge Reynolds had some part in the coal develop- ment of this region, for many years has owned and operated farming lands, and from his farm has supplied some of the high class Hereford and Holstein blood to the cattle herds of the county.

On October 27, 1866, at Morgantown, Judge Reynolds married Miss Belle R. Hennen. She was born at Fairmont in 1845, daughter of Washington and Justina (Shay) Hen- nen, is a graduate of the old female college in Morgantown, and was a teacher for a brief time before her marriage. The three surviving children of Judge Reynolds are: Edward Bunker, of Keyser, George H., of the same city, and Nina R., widow of the late L. T. Carskadon, of Keyser.

JAMES CLARK SANDERS. To men and women "born to teach," education calls out every degree of enthusiasm and devotion and provides satisfactions that in a measure com- pensate for the poor financial rewards attending the pro- fession. The highly constructive work performed by Mr. Sanders in the educational system of Keyser is the source of the generous esteem paid him and to a degree that many of the more prosperous class financially might envy.

Mr. Sanders is a member of an old family of West Vir- ginia, and was born at Maidsville, Monongalia County, January 31, 1872. The founder of the West Virginia branch of the family was John Sanders, who was one of the men sent out by Alexander Hamilton, then secretary of the United States Treasury, to collect the revenue ou distilled whisky in the Alleghany region. The refusal of the whisky makers to pay the tax brought on the "whisky rebellion, " such as described in every American history. John Sanders eventually settled in Monongalia County, and remained there in business as a stock dealer and drover. However, he is buried at Duck Creek, Delaware. His children were Jeffer- son ; John; Susan, wife of Crawford B. Dailey; Mary, who married Michael White; Sarah, who became the wife of John White, a nephew of Michael; and Thomas S.

Of these children John Sanders, Jr., grandfather of Pro- fessor Sanders, was born, lived and died in Monongalia County. By his marriage to Elizabeth Houston he had the following children: Hettie, who married Professor A. L. Wade; James, of whom more is said in the following para- graph; Sarah, who married Samuel Hackney; Elizabeth, who became Mrs. Cyrus Courtney, and died at Delphos, Kansas; Mrs. Lucinda Arnett, who recently died in Monongalia County; John, who was a Federal soldier and otherwise lived in Monongalia County; and Melissa, who never mar- ried. The second wife of John Sanders was Sarah Hunt, and they had three children: William and MeClellan, now living in Iowa; and Ettie, wife of Dow Ours, living at Kenosha, Wisconsin.

James Sanders was born December 27, 1832, and was liberally educated for his day. For a time he was a teacher in Greene County, Pennsylvania, but eventually settled down on a farm. He also conducted a tannery in his section of Monongalia County. He was a man of industry himself, and he taught his children the ways of honest workmanship. His death occurred in February, 1916. His wife was Sarah Miller, who was born in 1839, and died November 30, 1915. Her parents were Amherst and Sarah (Locke) Miller. The Millers came to Monongalia County about 1800 from Con- necticut. The children of James Sanders and wife were: Luther, of Cassville, West Virginia; Harry, of the firm of Sanders & Miller, of Morgantown, West Virginia; Eliza- beth, wife of A. T. Billingslea, of Mount Morris, Pennsyl- vania; John, who died just as he attained manhood; Vir- ginia, who married Professor T. W. Hendricks, of Culpeper, Virginia; James Clark, of Keyser; Miss Vinnie, a milliner in Pittsburgh; Lawrence D., deceased, whose wife and family live in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; and Maude, who married Bruce Bailey, a civil engineer, and lives at Fair- mont, West Virginia.

James C. Sanders during his early life at the old home- stead in Monongalia County became acquainted with the duties of the farm and also the tanyard. He attended the

schools there, and at the age of seventeen qualified as a teacher. His first school was near Mount Morris, in his home community, and his last work as a rural teacher was done in Monongalia County. He did some county normal work in his native county under the direction of former Governor W. E. Glasscock, then county superintendent. In 1890 Mr. Sanders entered West Virginia University, where he majored in chemistry, and graduated A. B. in 1896. A period of more than a quarter of a century has intervened since he left university prepared for more efficient work as a teacher. During the next five years he was principal of the high school at Hedgesville, Berkeley County, West Vir- ginia, and while there he brought the school to the stand- ing of the first grade high school, so that its graduates were admitted to the State University without examination. Dur- ing 1902-03 Mr. Sanders was principal of the graded school in Piedmont, associated with Superintendent W. M. Folk. While there he was offered the vice principalship of the State Preparatory School at Keyser, and his duties in that new position made him a resident of Keyser in 1903. The State Preparatory School is now known as the Potomac State College. He was its vice principal nine years, and resigned when elected superintendent of the city schools of Keyser, succeeding J. W. Stayman.

Mr. Sanders has been the official head of the school system at Keyser for ten years. It is possible to note only briefly some of the outstanding features of the school im- provements during this time. When he became superintend- ent the enrollment was about 800 pupils, and it has since doubled. The grade school building has been modernized, the Davis property purchased and on it a new junior high school completed at a cost of $150,000. The high school enrollment has increased from less than 100 to about 250 students. Departments of manual training, domestic science and domestic art have been added, and the high school course revised to conform with the national committee re- quirements for college entrance. The high school is a member of the Southern Association of High Schools, and graduates from it are admitted to all the first class colleges without examination.

Mr. Sanders is well known in the educational centers of the state. He has been secretary and treasurer of the State Educational Association of West Virginia for a number of years, was a member of the State Book Board in 1917, and at different times has been a member of the examining board of the state.

At Cassville, West Virginia, August 26, 1897, Mr. San- ders married Miss Mary Morris, daughter of Dr. Flora and Emma K. (Kelley) Morris. Her father was reared at Mount Morris, Pennsylvania. practiced the profession of medicine for many years and died at Berwick, Illinois. He was a son of Maj. J. B. Morris, who was a Union officer in the Civil war. The widow of Major Morris is still living, a resident of Morgantown, at the age of ninety-six. The widow of Doctor Morris lives in Keyser, at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Sanders. Doctor Morris and wife had four children: Lena, wife of Harry Bowlby, of Morgantown; Mrs. Mary Sanders, who was born at Mount Morris, Penn- sylvania, March 28, 1879; Emma, wife of Charles Cordry, of Cassville; and James Morris, a civil engineer at Hunting- ton. Mr. and Mrs. Sanders have a family of three sons, named James Morris, John K. and George Thomas.

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History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 3, Part 63

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