History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 3, Part 64

Author:
Publication date:
Publisher:
Number of Pages:

USA > West Virginia > History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 3 > Part 64

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

During the period of the great war Mr. Sanders, like other patriotic citizens, assumed a share of additional duties, and rendered some good service as county food ad- ministrator. He was also a member of the County Council of Defense. He is a Master Mason, a member of the Modern Woodmen of America and the Patriotic Sons of America, belongs to the Keyser Rotary Club, and is a steward in the Methodist Episcopal Church and teacher of the Men's Bible Class.

LUKE MCDOWELL. Education, like many other vital in- terests of mankind, has been undergoing great changes of objective and method in recent years. That the new ele- ments, proved and tested as to their results, are getting introduced into many conservative and old-time sections of West Virginia is due in no small measure to the progressive

191

HISTORY OF WEST VIRGINIA

attitude and enlightened leadership of such school men as Luke McDowell, who has been an educator at heart all his active years and who several years ago was promoted to the responsibility of county superintendent of Mineral County.

Mr. McDowell was born near Burlington, Mineral County, June 15, 1876, son of Thomas and Mary (Rogers) Mc- Dowell, his mother being a daughter of William and Mary (Parker) Rogers. The McDowells originated in County Londonderry, Ireland. The first American of the name was Joseph McDowell, who was also of Scotch ancestry, while his wife was of English stock. Thomas McDowell was born in New York City, May 9, 1828. His parents came to West- ern Virginia and settled on a farm when Mineral County was included in Hampshire County. The grandfather of Joseph McDowell had been a railroad laborer, but after settling in Mineral County exchanged that work for farm- ing. Thomas McDowell received his education before the days of free schools, and his time and labor were devoted to the tilling of the soil. He was a member of the Vir- ginia Militia before the Civil war, and was commissioned captain of a company by Governor Joe Johnson of Virginia. He lived a quiet, efficient and steadfast life in his com- munity, was a good citizen and believed in progress, and for years was a class leader and an officer in the Ridge- ville Methodist Church. His scholarship was of no mean quality in Biblical literature, and he wrote and left behind him some manuscripts that betray a wide knowledge of the Bible and religious subjects. He began voting as a demo- crat, but voted for Lincoln in 1864, while his father had voted for Breckinridge for president in 1860. When Thomas McDowell was eighty-eight years of age he walked five miles to cast his ballot for the republican ticket in the election of 1916. This venerable old citizen of Mineral County passed away September 30, 1920, at the age of ninety-two. His wife died April 14, 1907. A brief record of their children is as follows: Martha E., widow of J. W. Roberts, living at McCoole, Maryland; Joseph W., farming the old homestead; Alexander S., who died February 18, 1922, leaving a large family at Dartmoor, West Virginia, where he was blacksmith for the Davis Coal and Coke Com- pany; Angeline, who died at Moorefield, West Virginia, in 1909, wife of W. F. Simmons and mother of two sons and two daughters; Marion, wife of L. A. High, Charleston, West Virginia; John T., who is owner of the old farm of his parents and one of the successful fruit growers in that section of the state; Henry L., of Keyser; Bessie, Mrs. J. T. Grove, of Luke, Maryland; Luke; and Miss Tirza, at home.

Luke McDowell acquired a public school education, and after completing the eighth grade passed satisfactory ex- amination for a teacher's certificate. His first school was taught at the age of nineteen, in the Red Star School in Welton District of Mineral County. He continued teaching for several years, but after his marriage, as a means of supporting his own home, he took up carpenter work and also learned cabinet making in the Keyser Table Factory. Through employment at these mechanical trades he was able to supplement his wages as a teacher in the winter, but for several years he gave up teaching altogether in favor of his trade. He resumed school work in the rural districts, and it was while teaching at Paris that he put into practice some of the fundamental principles of modern education of the hand as well as the mind. Largely at his own initiative and expense he put up a little work shop where he could train the boys in the use of tools. He did this in order to create a greater interest and make school more attractive to the boys. With tools provided by him and some by the community and with his own skill as a practical cabinet maker he made this department a marvel of efficiency and instilled a new life and vitality into school. It was this work, then in a small country community, that brought him to the attention of the Board of Education of Keyser, and led to his accepting their offer that he become the teacher of manual training in the schools there. He continued as instructor of manual training for the Keyser schools four years. On July 1, 1918, he left that work to accept appointment as county superintendent of schools as the successor of A. E. Sites, deceased. At the close of the unexpired term he became a candidate to succeed himself,

and was elected in the fall of 1918. Since he has been superintendent he started the agitation for consolidation of rural schools in New Creek District. The movement was somewhat premature, and owing to strong opposition the plans were dropped until the community could be educated to accept consolidation as a proper means for securing better schools in the country districts. Mr. McDowell has accomplished a great deal of splendid work while county superintendent, though he has had unusual obstacles to con- tend with. He went into office while the World war was in progress and when many of the best qualified teachers had been attracted into other fields. He has worked hard and, in the main, successfully to give the schools competent and well trained teachers. He has also introduced the practice of awarding certificates of excellence to the pupils through- out the county who showed the greatest proficiency in any oue branch, whether it be penmanship, mathematics, history, and this has done much to encourage pupils who have a real bent for some particular line, though they could never hope to excell in all the branches and studies that comprise a school curriculum.

Mr. McDowell is a republican, casting his first vote for Mckinley in 1900. He is a past grand and has been secretary of Queens Point Lodge No. 78, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, is a past consul of Camp No. 8070, Modern Woodmen of America, and is recording steward of the First Methodist Episcopal Church of Keyser and superintendent of its junior Sunday school.

At Keyser, March 9, 1898, Mr. McDowell married Miss Mary E. Davis, who was born in the Burlington community of Mineral County, February 24, 1876, daughter of William and Martha (Stewart) Davis, and second in their family of children. The oldest is James T. Davis and the other two are Mrs. H. W. Clark and Mrs. J. W. Minear. Mrs. Mc- Dowell acquired a rural school education, and she began teaching in the same school where her husband had taught his first term, but after this term closed she was married and has since had a busy routine of caring for her home and rearing her own children. These children are: Marie, a graduate of the Keyser lligh School, who taught for one year and is now office assistant to her father; Russell, a graduate of the Keyser High School and in the employ of T. B. Rogers & Son of Keyser, merchants; Lester, also a high school graduate and now a freshman in the Potomac State School; Elizabeth and Lucille, both attending high school; and James Henry.

LESTER J. HUDSON is prominently concerned with the industrial activities of the City of Huntington, where he is manager of the United States Chain & Forging Company, the extensive plant of which, together with the general of- fices, is situated at Fifteenth Street, West, and Adams Avenue. This well ordered corporation, one of the most important in its special field of enterprise in the United States, manufactures a large variety of iron and steel chains, especially for railroad and dredging purposes, and Mr. Hudson has the general supervision of the work of 125 employes.

Lester J. Hudson was born in Wood County, Ohio, July 5, 1887, and is a son of Frank M. and Catherine (Miller) Hudson, both natives of Seneca County, Ohio, where the former was born in 1853 and the latter in 1855, the father being now a resident of Deshler, Henry County, that state, and being still active in the supervision of his fine farm in that county, his wife having passed to the life eternal in 1917. He is a republican in political adherency and is a zealous member of the Presbyterian Church, as was also his wife. Gaylord, eldest of their children, is an electrician and resides at Deshler; Laura is the wife of Henry Wentz, of Elkhart, Indiana; Elmer is a farmer near Attica, Ohio; Lester J., of this sketch, and his twin brother, Chester A., were next in order of birth, the latter being an employment manager in the City of Cleveland, Ohio.

Frank M. Hudson was reared and educated in his native county, where his marriage was solemnized and where he continued his activities as a farmer until he removed to Wood County, Ohio. In the latter county he was engaged in farm enterprise until 1892, since which year he has been

192

HISTORY OF WEST VIRGINIA

one of the substantial exponents of agricultural and live- stock enterprise in Henry County, that state.

After attending the district schools of Henry County, Ohio, Lester J. Hudson there continued his studies in the high school at Deshler until his graduation in 1907. He taught two terms of school in that county, and in 1910 he graduated from the Lima Business College at Lima, Ohio. He then became stenographer in the offices of the Stand- ard Chain Company at St. Marys, Ohio, and he so thor- oughly familiarized himself with the details of the business that he won conseentive advancement and finally, in 1912, was made manager of the company. In 1918 this concern sold its plant and business to the American Chain Company, and Mr. Hudson was transferred to the latter's plant at Columbus, Ohio, where he held the position of purchasing agent three months. He then, in November, 1919, resigned and accepted his present responsible office, that of manager of the United States Chain & Forging Company.

Mr. Hudson is a thoroughgoing republican, but has had no desire for political office. He and his wife are members of the Fifth Avenue Baptist Church at Huntington, in which he is a member of the church orchestra. He is a past grand of Shawnee Lodge, I. O. O. F., at St. Marys, Ohio, where he is affiliated also with St. Marys Lodge No. 219, Knights of Pythias. He is a member of the West Side Country Club of Huntington. He gave loyal service in support of the various patriotic movements in connection with the World war, and was specially active in advancing local campaigns in support of the Government bond issues, he having been responsible for bonds sold to the employes of the company of which he was an executive.

At Pittsfield, Illinois, in 1917, Mr. Hudson wedded Miss Cora C. Laugh, who was born near Cincinnati, Ohio, and who graduated from high school in that city and also from a training school for nurses. Mr. and Mrs. Hudson have no children.

Mr. Hudson is a scion of one of the sterling pioneer fami- lies of the old Buckeye State, his paternal grandfather having been born in Seneca County, Ohio, in 1817, a date that indicates the pioneer priority of the family in that commonwealth. In his native county the grandfather be- came the owner of a valuable landed estate and was an extensive and successful farmer, his death having there occurred in 1897.

HARRY F. COFFMAN, M. D., took up the work of general practice at Keyser with a thoroughness of training and breadth of experience that at once made him one of the most useful men in the profession of medicine in Mineral County. He located at Keyser in 1917.

Doctor Coffman was born in the picturesque Valley of Virginia, on a farm near Woodstock, March 28, 1883. His great-grandfather, Adolph Coffman, a German ancestor, moved from Pennsylvania to the Valley of Virginia about 1785. Reuben A. Coffman, grandfather of Doctor Coffman, was a native of Shenandoah County, was a slave holder be- fore the war and devoted his entire life to his plantation. He married a Miss Hollar, and they were the parents of fourteen children. Several of the sons were in the Con- federate army, and one or two of them gave up life in battle for the cause of the South.

David W. Coffman, father of Doctor Coffman, was a native of Shenandoah County, had a common school educa- tion, and for some years followed farming, but later took up railroad service with the Baltimore & Ohio at Cumberland, Maryland, and is still on duty there. He married Annie L. Richards, also a native of Shenandoah County. Her father, Capt. John A. Richards, was a captain in the Confederate army during the war. The children of David W. Coffman and wife are: Dr. Harry Franklin, of Keyser; Lucy R., wife of Clyde L. Smith, of Morgantown, West Virginia; Durus D., of Cumberland, Maryland; Mary A., wife of Henry Bailey, of Bedford, Ohio; Nellie F., wife of Carl C. Stump, of Cumberland; and John David, who is attend- ing high school at Cumberland.

Harry F. Coffman lived in Shenandoah County until he was abont twenty years of age. He attended the country schools, the New Market High School, and in 1909, after

lie had been earning his own way for some years, graduated from the Alleghany Academy at Cumberland, Maryland. He learned telegraphy at Plains, Virginia, and while at Cumberland, he was employed as a utility man and in January, 1905, assigned a regular place in the Cumberland yards of the Baltimore & Ohio. He resumed and continued that work through the summer vacations while he was com- pleting his medical course. In 1909 he entered the Univer- sity of West Virginia Medical School, finished his course in 1911, and took advanced work in the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Baltimore, where he graduated in 1913. Doctor Coffman in March, 1914, became assistant medical examiner for the Baltimore & Ohio system, with headquart- ers at Cleveland, his special jurisdiction being the Northern district of Ohio. On June 3, 1917, the railroad company transferred him to Keyser, West Virginia, where he con- tinued similar duties until April 1, 1918, and at that date began the general practice of medicine.

Doctor Coffman is one of the thoroughly modern physi- cians and surgeons, never satisfied with present attainments and always seeking opportunities to keep in touch with the broad march of the profession. In 1921 he took post- graduate work in the Western Reserve University of Cleve- land. He is president of the Four-County Medical Society, including Grant, Hampshire, Hardy and Mineral counties. He is designated medical examiner for the Veterans Bureau, and during the World war he was one of the medical board of five members comprising the Advisory Board in Keyser. In addition to these duties and his private practice het served as health officer of Keyser for two years. He is a member of the Phi Kappa Psi medical fraternity, belongs to the Church of the Brethren and in politics is a re- publican.

At Mansfield, Illinois, September 28, 1915, Doctor Coff- man married Ruth E. Swartz, who was born in Pike County, Illinois, March 10, 1892, daughter of John J. and Mary (Elliott) Swartz. The three children of Doctor and Mrs. Coffman are Harry Franklin, Jr., born in 1916, Mary Elizabethi, horn in 1919, and Ralph Swartz, born in 1921.

CHARLES N. FINNELL. Thirty years a member of the West Virginia bar, Charles N. Finnell has done his hest work as a lawyer since locating at Keyser. His practice has been satisfying to a degree that he has needed no ontside sources of income, though in later years he has acquired some business interests in that section of the state. He has been in politics for the good of the com- munity and not for office, and his public service has been almost entirely within the line of his profession.

Mr. Finnell was born at Morgantown, West Virginia, July 17, 1867. His grandfather was William Finnell, also a native of Monongalia County, where he was a substantial farmer. His home was near Granville, that county, and he died about 1886, at the age of eighty-four. William Finnell married a Miss Tapp, and their four sons and two daugh- ters were: Robert A., who spent his life near Morgantown; Alonzo, mentioned below; Evander, who died near Morgan- town; Webster, who lived in Monongalia County; Theo- dosia, who died as the wife of A. Wesley Snider; and Miss Fannie.

Alonzo Finnell, father of the Keyser lawyer, was a native of Monongalia County, and had to his eredit a serv- ice of three years as a Union soldier in a West Virginia regiment. He spent his active life in the butcher business at Morgantown. He died in 1877, at the age of forty-one. He married Louisa Hare, who was born on the farm of her father near Morgantown, March 19, 1838, and is now eighty- four years of age, living at Long Beach, California. Her father was John Hare. Her brother, Silas W. Hare, was a first lieutenant in the Fourteenth West Virginia Infantry during the Civil war, and he was on duty for part of two years around Keyser, then called New Creek. He is now eighty years of age and a resident of Los Angeles, Cali- fornia. Another soldier of the family was Elias C. Finnell an uncle of Alonzo Finnell. He was captain of Company I, of the Fourteenth West Virginia Infantry, and after the war moved out to Illinois, where he died. Alonzo Finnell and wife reared only two children, Charles Newton and

193

HISTORY OF WEST VIRGINIA

Miss Belle V., the latter living at Long Beach, California, with her mother.

Charles N. Finnell was reared at Morgantown and had the advantages of the schools of that educational center. He finished high school and took the classical course at the West Virginia University, graduating A. B. in 1889. For three years he taught school, and then he re-entered the uni- versity for his law course, graduating in 1893. After being admitted to the bar he sought a location at Parsons in Tucker County, and while there was a member of the firm Finnell & Conley. He tried his first law suit there. Then, in 1895, he moved to Keyser, and since then has been alone in practice. He does a general practice, and his interests as a lawyer has acquired his attendance at the courts of all the adjoining counties, in the State Supreme Court and also the Federal Courts. Early in his career he was admitted to practice in the United States Court.

In the line of his profession he served Mineral County as prosecuting attorney four years, being elected in 1900 as successor to Frank C. Reynolds. He did not seck re-election. He served two terms as city attorney, declining reappoint- ment for the third time. As a leader in the republican party Mr. Finnell was chairman of the Congressional Com- mittec of the Second West Virginia District from 1908 to 1912, and has been a delegate to a number of congressional and state conventions. He is serving his third term as a member of the Board of Education of the Keyser Independ- ent District, and was president of the board when the Col. Tom Davis property was acquired for school purposes, this being the site upon which the new high school has recently been completed. Mr. Finnell cast his first presidential vote for Benjamin Harrison in 1888.

In Masonry he is affiliated with the lodge at Keyser, where he was raised, and is a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason in the West Virginia Consistory at Wheeling, and a member of Osiris Temple of the Mystic Shrine in the same city.

At Parsons, West Virginia, October 9, 1901, Mr. Finnell married Miss Lena Rees Blackman, a native of Tucker County and educated at Parsons. Her parents were Silas R. and Mary (McGuffin) Blackman. Her mother died in 1899, at the age of forty-eight. Her father, who died at Parsons in 1920, at the age of seventy-one, was a native of Beverly, this state, and spent his life as a farmer. Mrs. Finnell was born November 24, 1874, the oldest of five children, the others being: Philadelphia Blackman, of Washington, D. C .; Miss Harriet, deceased; Mary S., wife of E. A. Hays, of Elkins; and Judson S., of Shinnston. Mr. and Mrs. Finnell have four children. The oldest, Robert Blackman, graduated from the Keyser High School and is now a student in the West Virginia University. John Hare is attending high school at Keyser. The two youngest children are Elizabeth Harriet and Ruth.

Among business interests, now strictly professional, Mr. Finnell has become a stockholder in several orchard com- panies in the vicinity of Keyser. He is attorney for the Peoples Bank of that city, and one of the counsel of the Western Maryland Railway Company. During the World war he was a member of the Registration Board to register all men subject to the draft, and later served as chairman of the Draft Board of Mineral County and still later was a member of the Legal Advisory Board. He was one of the busy men in this section building up patriotic sentiment and made a number of addresses over the county.

ROY E. WISEMAN spent eight years of his young life in the service of the Western Maryland Railroad, as agent and Telegrapher, and was still under thirty when he was nominated and elected assessor of his native county of Mineral. He is one of the most popular men in the county seat at Keyser.

Mr. Wiseman was born near Elkgarden in Mineral County, November 12, 1892. His grandfather, Dolphus Wiseman, came to West Virginia from New York State, and devoted his active life to farming. He died about 1895, at the age of eighty-eight. He had only one son, the late John Wiseman, who was born in New York and was brought to West Virginia when a child. He served

as a Government teamster for the Union army during the Civil war. Otherwise his years were devoted to his farm near Elkgarden, where he died in January, 1917, at the age of seventy-six. He married Ann Nethken, daughter of Frederick Nethken and of Danish ancestry. Their children were: Charles L., of McCool, Maryland; John H., a photographer who died unmarried when a young man; James T., of Elkgarden; Frederick P., who enlisted in the regular army about the close of the Spanish-American war, and during his three years' service made a trip around the world, and is now a resident of Luke, Maryland; Bertie C., wife of Stephen C. Green, of Elkgarden; and Roy Edgell, who is the youngest child. The mother of these children is still living at the old homestead of Elkgarden, at the age of seventy-two. She is a member of the Southern Methodist Church and comes of a democratic family, while her sons are equally divided in politics, two of them demo- erats and two republicans.

Roy E. Wiseman grew up on the farm, and had a part in its affairs until he was seventeen. He attended public school there, and he began learning telegraphy in the Elk- garden station of the Western Maryland Railroad Company under the regular agent. After completing his period of training his first assignment to regular duty was at the lumber town of Dobbin, West Virginia. He went on the company pay roll in 1910, and when he resigned in 1918 he had done duty at twenty-three stations along the West- ern Maryland system, including a position for a time in the main office at Cumberland, and was classed as one among the fastest and best operators on the railroad.

When he left the railroad service Mr. Wiseman returned to farming, and for two years was a producer of food stuff in Mineral County. It was about this time that he became an aspirant for the office he now holds. In the primaries of 1920 he entered the field in which five other men sought the same office. He won the nomination hy five votes over his nearest competitor, and as a republican was elected over his opponent by more than 800 votes. He entered upon his official duties at Keyser in January, 1921, as the successor of A. H. Metcalf. His first county assessment showed a gross gain of approximately $360,000, and the second year showed a gross gain of more than $3,000,000.

Mr. Wiseman was one of the promoters of the Elk Dis- triet Highway, now under improvement and construction, running from Blaine, West Virginia, to the intersection of the Northwestern Turnpike. He is unmarried. During the World war he was not called into service, due to his railroad service, but he registered and was placed in the first class of drafted men.

Fraternally he was made a Mason at Piedmont, West Virginia, in 1915, a member of Mount Carbon Lodge No. 28, and has since become a member of the Scottish Rite Consistory No. 1, Wheeling, the Royal Arch Masons at Keyser and Osiris Temple of the Mystic Shrine, is a member of the Eastern Star, is a past chancellor of the Knights of Pythias and a member of the Pythian Sisters, has taken both the subordinate and encampment degrees of Odd Fel- lowship and is a Rebekah. He is a member of the Potomac Shriner Club of Keyser.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 3, Part 64

Author: Publication date: Publisher: Number of Pages:

Author:
Publication date:
Publisher:
Number of Pages: