History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 3, Part 67

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Fred E. Way finished his education at the Peoria High School at the age of nineteen years, at which time he secured employment in the office of the McCormick Har. vester Company, Peoria, where he remained three years For the two years that followed he was identified with the Acme Harvester Company at Pekin, Illinois, and then went

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to Dallas, Texas, where he was in the employ of Aultman, Miller & Company, manufacturers of farm implements, from 1894 to 1904. Mr. Way's next experience was in an agri- cultural way, and tilling the soil on a farm near Dallas continued to be his occupation until 1905, in which year he came to Kenova, in the year following succeeding M. A. Hayward, former general manager of what is now the Kenova Hardwood Flooring Company. This business was originally established in 1902, and was then known as the Kenova Poplar Manufacturing Company, the president of the concern then being E. W. Houghton and the vice presi- dent, G. A. McClintock. W. O. Houghton, son of the former president, now occupies the chief executive position. In its earlier days the territory of the company was con- fined entirely to the Middle West, but its product now meets with a steady demand not only through this locality, but in New York and other eastern points. The plant was taken over by the present concern August 16, 1916.

Mr. Way has established and maintained a reputation as a sound, reliable, progressive man of business, and one who is thoroughly familiar with the principles and ethirs of commercial life not only as they affect his own concern but as they apply to business matters in general. lle has taken an active part in civic affairs at Kenova, where he has served as mayor and recorder, and his public record is an excellent one. He is an interested and working member of the Chamber of Commerce and local movements for the benefit of the community always have his support and co- operation. During the World war period he was active in Red Cross and other work. As a fraternalist he affiliates with the Knights of Pythias, while his political identifica- tion is with the republican party.

On October 5, 1905, at Chicago, Mr. Way was united in marriage with Miss Georgina Stewart, daughter of Peter Stewart, of Edinburgh, Scotland, a sergeant-major in the Royal Scots. He died in his native land, following which his widow brought her children to the United States. Four children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Way: Edwin W., Warren Stewart, Fred E., Jr., and Martha Louise. Mr. and Mrs. Way are consistent members of the Presbyterian Church of Kenova, to the movements of which they have been liberal contributors, and in which Mr. Way officiates as an elder.

FRED DIDDLE, an ex-service man who was a first lieutenant during the war, has given his time to banking since he left the army, and is cashier of the First National Bank of Salem.

He was born at Philippi in Barbour County, October 20, 1891. His grandfather, John Diddle, settled in Barbour County a short time before the beginning of the Civil war, but finally moved out to Kansas and he died at Newton in that state at the age of eighty-one. He was of Irish lineage, and the tradition is that two Diddle Brothers came to America and were Colonial soldiers in the American Revo- Intion, one of them subsequently settling in Pennsylvania and the other in Virginia. George Diddle, father of Fred Diddle, was born in old Virginia and was one year old when the family settled in Barbour County. He was in business as a contractor, and died in 1919, at the age of sixty-one. He married Flora Lee Mason, a native of Tyler County, West Virginia, and daughter of Harrison Mason, also a native of this state.

Fred Diddle, only son and child of his parents, was reared in Philippi, where he completed a high school education. For one year he attended West Virginia University, and then entered Yale University, where he was graduated with the A. B. degree in 1916. In that year he volunteered for service in the Tenth Field Artillery, Connecticut National Guard, for duty during the Mexican border troubles. He had six months of military training with this organiza- tion. Then, in June, 1917, he volunteered for the World war, and subsequently entered the Second Officers' Train- ing Camp at Fort Benjamin Harrison, where he was com- missioned as first lieutenant in November, 1917. He was assigned to duty within the United States, and continued until his honorable discharge in December, 1918. Mr. Diddle is a member of the American Legion,

After leaving the army he was in the service of the Citizens National Bank of Philippi until he resigned and in January, 1920, became cashier of the First National Bank of Salem.

The First National Bank of Salem was established in 1898 as the Bank of Salem, and in 1904 it changed its charter to a National Bank, with a capital of $60,000.00. The bank has now surplus and undivided profits of $72,000.00, and is one of the most prosperous banking in- stitutions of Harrison County. It has had only one presi- dent, Genius Payne. The bank is housed in its own build- ing, a three-story brick block erected in 1902.

Mr. Diddle in 1921 married Miss Lucile Denton, of Treze- vant, Tennessee. He is a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason and Shriner, a member of the Knights of Pythias and in church faith is a Baptist.

EMERY JUDSON WOOFTER, D. D. Members of the Woof- ter family have been noted as sterling and substantial people in West Virginia through four generations, but the distinctive service associated with the name has been the ministry of the Baptist Church. In the present generation Dr. E. J. Woofter is one of the best known Baptist minis- ters in West Virginia, and for a number of years has been a pastor of the great church of that denomination at Salem in Harrison County.

His great-grandfather was Johnathan Woofter, who came from Fauquier County, Virginia, to what is now West Virginia. At a much carlier date the Woofters settled in Virginia from Massachusetts, and came originally from South Hampden, England. The name was originally spelled Wooster, the "s" in the name was written "long S," after the familiar chirography of the time, and was mistaken for an "F" and eventually the spelling Woofter was adopted.

The grandfather of E. J. Woofter was Rev. John Woof- ter, who did much of the pioneer work of his denomination in West Virginia. He was a leader in missionary enter- prise and the church building over a large territory, and he had the distinction of serving forty-six years as pastor of one church. the Leading Creek Baptist Church of Gil- mer County. His son Calvin Woofter was a deacon in the same church for many years. Calvin Woofter married Susan Vannoy, and both were natives of Gilmer County. Her father, Francis Marion Vannoy, came from old Vir- ginia. Calvin and Susan Woofter had three children, one son and two daughters.

Emery Judson Woofter was born on his father's farm in Gilmer County, April 25, 1867, grew up on the farm and assisted his father in its work until he was twenty- two years of age. His early education was supplied by the rural schools, and for a time he was a student in Transyl- vania University at Lexington, Kentucky, until failing health compelled him to leave his studies. Later he entered the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary at Louisville, completing a literary course and also his theological studies in 1893. In 1894 he was ordained to preach at Leading Creek Baptist Church. of which his grandfather had been pastor for nearly half a century. His first pastorate was at Glenville, and for eight years he was pastor of the Church at Troy in Gilmer County, and subsequently pastor at Harrisville and Bridgeport. On April 21, 1907, he en- tered upon his duties as pastor of the Salem Baptist Church at Salem, where he has been a part in his congenial duties for fifteen years. This church organized in 1882, and is one of the strongest church organizations in West Vir- ginia. Six years after becoming pastor Doctor Woofter had the pleasure of seeing a handsome church edifice dedi- cated, and this, together with a manse, cost about $57,000. Doctor Woofter has been a leader in general church activi- ties, and in 1911 and in 1914 he was chosen president of the Baptist General Association of West Virginia. He is now president of the West Virginia Baptist Educa- tional Society and is associate editor of the West Virginia Baptist Banner. In 1918 Salem College conferred upon him the degree Doctor of Divinity. Doctor Woofter is a Knight Templar Mason and Shriner and an Odd Fellow,

M.L. Taylor

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He married Miss Alice Gay Bush, of Gilmer County. Their three daughters are Mildred, Mary and Madeline.

MARTIN LUCIUS TAYLOR, vice president and general man- ager of the Morgantown Coal Company, is a native of West Virginia and a scion of the fourth generation of the Taylor family in this commonwealth. Isaac Taylor, his great-great- grandfather, was born in Kentucky in 1781 and later settled on the Cheat River in Randolph County, Virginia (now West Virginia), about the opening of the nineteenth cen- tury. There in 1803 he married Elizabeth Hays, whose father was a pioneer settler on Smith's branch of the Cheat River. Their son, Nimrod, was born in Randolph County in 1815, and his wife, Margaret, likewise was a native of that county, where her parents were early settlers. Washington Coyner Taylor, son of Nimrod and Margaret Taylor, was born in 1838, and in 1861 he married Jane, daughter of Elijah Nelson. Their son, Elam Elijah, was born in Randolph County in September, 1862, and became one of the prominent and influential citizens of his native county, where he served in various offices of public trust, including those of constable, justice of the peace, county surveyor and county road-engineer, of which last mentionedl office he was the incumbent at the time of his illness which caused his death in 1913. In 1885 he married Lydia Ann Coberly, daughter of Levi and Mary (Canfield) Coberly, and after the death of her husband Mrs. Taylor married again, becoming the wife of William B. Maxwell, a prominent attorney of Elkins, West Virginia, where they still reside.

Marvin L. Taylor, son of Elam E. and Lydia A. Taylor, was born at Elkins, county seat of Randolph County, on the 1st of October, 1886. His early education included the discipline of the high school in his native city, where in 1904 he entered Davis & Elkins College. After a prepara- tory course in this institution he was matriculated, in 1906, in the University of West Virginia, where he took up a course in civil engineering. He was not graduated, how- ever, as he left the university in 1911 to become assistant road engineer of Randolph County under the regime of his father. In 1913 he became chief engineer of the Rockcastle River Railroad in Laurel County, Kentucky, but in the spring of the following year he accepted the position of examiner of surveys in the United States forest service in Randolph and Tucker counties, West Virginia. In the spring of 1915 Mr. Taylor became associated with the Monongahela Valley Engineering Company of Morgantown, and while thus allied he also served, 1916-17, as city engineer of Elkins, besides which, in 1915, he was county bridge-engineer of Randolph County. In 1917 he became vice president and general manager of the Morgantown Coal Company, and president of the Baketa Motors Com- pany of this city. He is a member and former director of the Morgantown Chamber of Commerce, a member of the local Kiwanis Club, a life member and a member of the Advisory Board of the Old Colony Club, besides which he is a member of the Morgantown Country Club, and is affiliated with the Sigma Phi Epsilon college fraternity, the Masonic fraternity and the Independent Order of Odd Fel- ows. He is a director of the American Wholesaler Coal Association, 1921-1922. In April, 1922, he organized the Taylor Fuel Company at Morgantown, W. Va., of which ne is general manager.

Mr. Taylor married Miss Lena Leota Holt, daughter of William B. and Martha O. (Hyman) Holt, and she is a popular figure in the representative social activities of Morgantown.

MOSES HOFFMAN VAN HORN has been an active figure n the educational affairs of West Virginia for thirty years. Much of his time and talent have been devoted to his ulma mater, Salem College, at Salem in Harrison County, There he is now dean and head of the department of nathematics.

Mr. Van Horn was born in Harrison County, August 9, 872, and is member of one of the oldest families in this ection of the state. The tradition is that the Van Horns ame to West Virginia from New Jersey. They were of Holland-Dutch ancestry. The pioneer ancestor was Wil-

liam Van Horn, Sr., who settled in the eastern part of Harrison County as early as 1781. Many of his descendants still live in the county. The first settlement was made in a community of Seventh Day Baptist Church people, and while the Van Horns were not originally of that faith, they embraced the church, and for generations have been leaders in its affairs. The son of William Van Horn, Sr., was William Van Horn, Jr., and he in turn was the father of Moses Van Horn, grandfather of the Salem College dean. Moses Van Horn married Elsie Drummond. William B. Van Horn, father of Moses H., was born in Harrison County and became a well to do farmer there. Farming has been the favorite occupation of the family through the various generations. William V. Van Horn married Elsie Kennedy, who was born in Harrison County, daughter of William and Elsie Melvina (Reed) Kennedy.

Moses Hoffman Van Horn spent his early life on the farm, attended rural schools, and in the intervals of teach- ing he pursued the studies leading to his liberal education. He was a pupil in Salem Academy, and then in Salem Col- lege, where he graduated A. B. in 1897. In 1908 his alma mater awarded him the Master of Arts degree. He also at- tended Cornell University and West Virginia State Univer- sity and took correspondence work at the University of Chicago. Mr. Van Horn began teaching in rural schools, remaining in that work for four years, for one year was principal of the graded schools at Shinnston, for eight years principal of the Salem High School, and eight years was professor of Mathematics in Salem College. For six years he was superintendent of city schools of Salem. In Sep- tember, 1920, he became dean and head of the department of mathematics in Salem College. Mr. Van Horn is a member of the West Virginia State and National Educa- tional Associations and the National Society for the Study of Education. is a member of the Kiwanis Club and the Seventh Day Baptist Church.

In 1896 he married Miss Metta Wilson, daughter of Hiram and Mandane (Lowther) Wilson. They have one daughter, Hallie Florene Van Horn, and a foster son, Wil- liam Simpson.

S. ORESTES BOND, whose career since early manhood has represented a successful devotion to the cause of educa- tion, is president of Salem College, an institution that has trained several generations of young men and women and is one of the notable schools of West Virginia. The school is conducted under the auspices of the Seventh Day Bap- tist Church. The Bond family for a number of genera- tions have been active in this religious faith.

Mr. Bond was born on a farm in Upshur County, West Virginia, August 12. 1877, and is member of an old Ameri can family, being a descendant of Samuel Bond, a native of England, who after coming to America married Ann Sharpless and settled in Maryland. Their son, Richard Bond. was born in Maryland, and Levi, a son of Richard, was also born in that state. Brumfield Bond, grandfather of Orestes Bond, was born and reared in Harrison County, West Virginia, where his parents were early settlers. He married Belinda Hoffman, also a native of Harrison County.

The parents of Orestes Bond were Levi Davis and Vie- toria (Arnold) Bond. The latter was born in Barbour County, West Virginia, daughter of Moses Arnold, a native of the same county and of old Virginia ancestry. Levi Davis Bond was born in Upshur County, and still lives there, at the venerable age of eighty-two. His active inter- ests were those of a farmer and stockraiser, and he was a pioneer breeder of pure bred stock, especially cattle and sheep. His first wife died, leaving two children, S. Orestes and Emery H. Bond. His second wife was Byrd Queen, and they have a son, Esle Bond, still living with his parents at their old homestead in Upshur County.

S. Orestes Bond was about eight years of age when his mother died. He acquired his early education in the rural schools, and at the age of nineteen began teaching in a country district. For several years he alternated between teaching and attending school himself. Mr. Bond is an alumnus of the college over which he now presides. He graduated from Salem in 1904. In 1909 he received his

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A. B. degree from West Virginia University, and in 1913 he won the Master of Arts degree from Columbia Uni- versity of New York City. In 1914 he did an additional year of graduate study in Columbia University. Mr. Bond had fourteen years of active experience as a teacher of the public schools of West Virginia. For five years he taught in normal schools, one year as acting principal of the Glen- ville State Normal and four years as head of. the educa- tional department of Shepherd College State Normal School.

Mr. Bond returned to Salem College for the summer of 1919 to conduct a summer course, and a few weeks later, upon the resignation of the President, Dr. C. B. Clark, Mr. Bond was chosen his successor. He has brought a large experience in the educational field to the administration of the splendid old educational institution. He has been a member of the West Virginia State Education Associa- tion since 1906, of the National Education Association since 1912, and of the Society for the Study of Education, since 1913. He was reared and has always been loyal to the religious faith of his parents, the Seventh Day Baptist Church.

Mr. Bond in 1904 married Miss Venie Hagerty, of Har- rison County.

ARTHUR B. BOGGESS has given effective service in various public and semi-public offices at Clarksburg, judicial center of Harrison County, where he is now the incumbent of the position of clerk of the Circuit Court. The various official preferments that have come to him bear distinct evidence of the secure place he holds in popular esteem in his native county.

Mr. Boggess was born at Lumberport, Harrison County, November 30, 1870, and is a son of John W. and Margaret J. (Bowman) Boggess, the former a native of Harrison County and the latter of Ohio County, this state. The Boggess family settled in what is now the State of West Virginia at a very early period, and it is one of the oldest and most numerous in Harrison County at the present time. Albertus Boggess, grandfather of the subject of this sketch, passed his life in Harrison County, he having been a son of Samuel Boggess. John W. Boggess was a miller at Lumberport for a number of years and was also engaged in farm enterprise near that town. He served many years as justice of the peace, and was otherwise a figure of prominence in his community. He was seventy-six years of age at the time of his death. By his first marriage he was the father of several children, and Arthur B., of this review, is the only child of the second marriage, his mother having heen in her eighty-ninth year at the time of her death.

The early education of Arthur B. Boggess was acquired in the public schools of his native village and in the Buck- hannon Academy. As a youth he found employment at Clarksburg, and he there continued his service in various capacities until he assumed a clerical position in the Clarks- burg Post Office, in which he became assistant postmaster and served as such for ten years. In January, 1909, he was appointed deputy circuit clerk for Harrison County, and in this position he continued the efficient incumbent until August, 1921, when Judge Haymond Maxwell, presiding on the bench of the Circuit Court of that county. appointed him clerk, to fill out the unexpired term of I. Wade Coff- man, who resigned.

Well fortified in his views concerning political and eco- nomic matters, Mr. Boggess is found aligned loyally in the ranks of the republican party. He has completed the circle of York Rite Masonry, and is a Shriner, and has received the eighteenth degree in the Scottish Rite of the time- honored fraternity. He is also a member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, being one of the charter mem- bers of Clarksburg Lodge No. 482.

The year 1901 recorded the marriage of Mr. Boggess and Miss Nellie Post. daughter of Russell E. and Ella Fowkes Post, and the one child of this union is a daughter, Ella Louise.

URIAH HERBERT DEBENDARFER, M. D. For the greater part of three decades Doctor Debendarfer has performed the typical services of a physician and surgeon in West

Virginia, and for the greater part of that time has been in practice at Mannington in Marion County.

Doctor Debendarfer was born on a farm in Armstrong County, Pennsylvania, December 5, 1868, son of Amos Spang and Caroline (Kepple) Debendarfer, natives of the same county. His grandfather, Frederick Debendarfer, a native of Wurtemberg, Germany, when a boy of twelve years came to America with his two brothers, and he grew up in Armstrong County, where he married Salome Klingensmith, a native of Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania. Amos S. Debendarfer was born in 1845, devoted his active life to farming, and died November 5, 1891. His wife, Caroline Kepple was born in 1842, and died June 5, 1921. Her father, Samuel Kepple, was also a native of Westmoreland County.

Doctor Debendarfer spent his early life on the farm, while there attended the common schools, supplemented these ad- vantages in the Ellerton Academy of Pennsylvania, and passed three years of his student life in Thiel College at Greenville, Pennsylvania. He graduated from the medical department of the University of Pittsburgh in 1894, and while a student acquired some practical experience in the West Penn Hospital. After graduating he began practice in Canton, Ohio, and in 1896 located at Smithfield in Wetzel County, West Virginia. Since 1898 Doctor Debendarfer has had a home and professional office at Mannington, and has been busy with his professional practice as a physician and surgeon. He is a member of the Marion County and West Virginia State and American Medical Associations.

Doctor Debendarfer outside his profession has taken an active interest in fraternal and civic affairs. He is affiliated with Mannington Lodge No. 31, A. F. and A. M., Crusade Commandery, K. T., at Fairmont, West Virginia Consistory No. 1 of the Scottish Rite at Wheeling, Osiris Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Wheeling, and served as district deputy grand master in 1904 and was grand patron of the Grand Chapter of the Order of the Eastern Star in West Virginia in 1920.

September 17, 1897, Doctor Dehendarfer married Minerva Cecilia Kepple, a native of Westmoreland County, Penn- sylvania, and daughter of Jacob and Elizabeth Kepple. Doctor and Mrs. Debendarfer have two children: Madge Virginia, who is a graduate of the Mannington High School and a student in Emmerson College at Boston, Massachu- setts; and Harold Kepple, now manager of a store at Clarks- burg. He married Mildred Snodgrass, of Mannington, West Virginia, August 25, 1920.

HARRY V. VARNER, M. D., one of the able and repre- sentative members of his profession engaged in practice in the City of Clarksburg, Harrison County was born on a farm near Salem, this county, May 28, 1873, and is a son of Allen and Amanda (Powell) Varner, the former a native of Harrison County and the latter of Taylor County. The mother was reared in Doddridge County, a daughter of the late Ralph and Roxaline (Williams) Powell. Allen Varner, a son of John and Phoebe (Pew) Varner, maintained his home in Harrison County during his entire life and was fifty-four years of age at the time of his death, his widow being still a resident of this county. He was a successful exponent of farm industry and also made an excellent record as a traveling salesman. He enlisted for service in the Union Army at the time of the Civil war. He was a loyal republican in his political alignment and was a consistent member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. as is also his widow. Of their children, three sons and two daughters attained to years of ma- turity : Wheeler, who died at the age of twenty-five years; Rev. Weldon P. Varner, a clergyman of the Pittsburg Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church; Mrs. Jen- nie M. Backman, who is now deceased; Dr. Harry V., of this sketch; and Mrs. Stella King, whose husband has charge of the old homestead farm of her father, where her widowed mother likewise remains.

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History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 3, Part 67

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