History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 3, Part 71

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HISTORY OF WEST VIRGINIA

B. Elliott, aided in the construction of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad as an engineer, with which organization he was connected until his death. While he was not identified in a military sense with either side during the war of the '60s, his sympathies and those of the Elliott family were with the North, and it was under this influence that Arthur Arnold was reared, his father having died when the son was only two years of age. The Arnolds were Southern sympathizers, and one of the brothers of Stewart B. Ar- nold was in the Confederate service, and a sister, Laura Arnold, took a very active part in the conflict, being a trusted messenger for the Confederacy, operating in the Valley of Virginia. Stewart B. Arnold and his wife had the following children: Arthur, whose name heads this re- view; and Miss Stewart E., who is one of the popular and efficient educators of the Piedmont schools, being principal of the Piedmont High School.

Arthur Arnold attended the Piedmont schools through the high-school course, and then entered the University of West Virginia, where he took up law, history and litera- ture, and was graduated from the legal department in the spring of 1906. During the time he was attending the uni- versity he was a member of the Glee Club, and belongs to the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity.

Upon completing his law course Mr. Arnold was admit- ted to practice in the Circuit Court of Mineral County, and in the fall of 1906 established his law office at Piedmont, which is five miles from Keyser, the county seat. Subse- quently he opened another office at Keyser, and maintains both. He tried his first Circuit Court case in Keyser, but since then has had cases outside of the county, for his skill, determination and fearlessness have brought him many clients from a wide area. Mr. Arnold has never taken a partner, preferring to practice alone, and he has concen- trated his attention upon his professional work. In 1909 Mr. Arnold was chief clerk of the Judiciary Committee of the State Senate, and in 1910 was appointed prosecuting attorney of Mineral County by Judge F. M. Reynolds to fill out the unexpired term of A. J. Welton. With the ex- piration of that period Mr. Arnold retired to private life, but in November, 1920, was elected to the same office. Since assuming the duties of this office Mr. Arnold has had ample opportunity of not only proving his ability as an at- torney but his worth as a citizen. He has done both, and is giving the people a service which is marked by its stern pursuit of evildoers and its unflinching insistence upon equal rights for all classes.

In politics a republican, Mr. Arnold cast his first presi- dential ballot for William H. Taft, but long before that, during his minority, made himself useful on behalf of his party, and was active in the interests of the party which he had already selected for his own, his mother and her immediate relatives being ardent republicans. He has been a delegate from Piedmont to every republican convention held in the county, district and state, since he attained his majority. At different times he has been a member of the Mineral County Republican Committee, and managed nu- merous campaigns in the county. As a member of the State Senatorial and Second Congressional District com- mittees of his party he has also rendered yeoman service, and he has been one of the effective campaign speakers for years. Fraternally Mr. Arnold maintains membership with the Knights of Pythias. He is a communicant of the Episcopal church, and was reared in its faith.

On June 26, 1918. Mr. Arnold married at Piedmont, West Virginia, by Rev. Mr. Ronalds Taylor, rector of the Epis- copal Church at that place, Mrs. Mabel (Shook) Long, a daughter of the late Maj. E. H. Shook, a Union veteran of the Michigan Volunteer Infantry, with an enviable war record. He was born in New York State, but was taken to Michigan by his parents, and was reared at Mount Clem- ons and Detroit. Following the close of the Civil war Major Shook was employed by the Government, and he came to Piedmont with the United States postal card fac- tory after the Spanish-American war, and was in the Gov- ernment service until his death. Both he and his wife are buried at Mount Clemons, Michigan. Mrs. Arnold is the younger of two children, the elder being Mrs. Mira Gore,

of Detroit, Michigan. Mr. and Mrs. Arnold have no chil- dren. In every respect Mr. Arnold measures up to the high- est standards of American citizenship, and the future looks very bright for him. His fellow citizens realize that no matter what honors may be bestowed upon this talented young attorney they will be deserved, and that he will prove capable of discharging greater responsibilities if called upon to do so, for his is a character which expands under the stress of demand.

CHARLES C. ROBISON. In preparing a review of the prominent men of West Virginia whose careers have been devoted to persistent effort, and who through pluck and ability of a high order have battered down the obstacles which ever stand in the path of the ambitions and risen to positions of distinction, the record of Charles C. Robison, treasurer and general manager of the Morgantown Lumber Company, and president for 1920, 1921 and 1922 of the Mor- gantown Chamber of Commerce, is one that is worthy of more than passing mention. Mr. Robison is one who essentially belongs to the men of action of his state, and that he has not overlooked his opportunities is shown in what he has accomplished. His success has been the natural sequence of the logical unfolding and development of his native powers, and close application, indefatigable energy, integrity and determination have constituted the foundation of his achievements.

Mr. Robison was born July 25, 1886, on the home farm near Stewartstown in Union District, Monongalia County, West Virginia, and is a son of the late James and Sarah Jane (Hare) Robison, natives of Grant and Union dis- tricts, respectively, the former of whom died in 1894 and the latter in 1909. Mr. Robison remained on the home farm until he reached his fifteenth year, and in the mean- time attended the district schools. In 1902 he entered the employ of Robe & Rightmire, cabinet makers of Morgan- town, which firm later hecame merged into that of Chaplin, Warman & Rightmire Company, a concern with which the youth was connected until the plant was destroyed by fire and the company went out of business. He next became one of the organizers and secretary-treasurer of the Gen- eral Woodworking Company, but sold his interests in that company in 1915 and became treasurer of the Monongahela Supply Company, in which concern he had previously acquired an interest, and of which he continues treasurer. In August, 1920, he took charge as vice president of the Seaman Mill & Lumber Company, which was later reor- ganized as the Morgantown Lumber Company, of which he has since been treasurer and general manager. He is a member of the Board of Directors and of the Executive Committee of the Union Savings and Trust Company and has various other important business interests.

Mr. Robison joined the West Virginia National Guard in 1904, and rose to the rank of captain. In 1916 he was selected by the United States War Department and sent to the Mexican border as assistant chief of staff of the Four- teenth Division, and as such was in active service on the border for four months. He returned to his home in the early part of December, 1916. On March 28, 1917, he was ordered to duty by the War Department and placed in command of Company L, First West Virginia Infantry, mobilizing at Fairmont, West Virginia, and six days later was ordered to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in which city he took charge of the Pittsburgh Storage and Supply Depot, a branch of the Philadelphia Depot, U. S. A. On July 23, 1917, he was ordered back to Fairmont, and then ordered to Fort Sill, Oklahoma, to take a course of training in building fortifications in the engineering department, a school of arms. Upon the completion of his course he was given the best grade to be obtained and given credentials as an instructor. He was then ordered to report for duty to the Thirty-eighth Division, then being formed at Camp Shelby, near Hattiesburg, Mississippi, where he was as- signed to duty with the 150th Regiment of Infantry, and was also instructor in the Division Engineering School, where he continued until August 1, 1918. At that time he was commissioned major and assigned to the Eighty-fourth Infantry, stationed at Fort Beauregard, Louisiana, at which

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camp he was on. duty in different capacities (at one time being in command of the regiment) until February 9, 1919, at which time he was honorably discharged at his own request. Before the signing of the armistice Major Robison made application to the adjutant-general's department for overseas duty, but this was refused for the reason that his services were needed in the capacity in which he was acting. He was recommended to be retained in commission after the close of the war, but retired to his home and his busi- ness interests. Major Robison organized the ex-soldiers of Monongalia County who had returned from war into a post, of which he was made commander, and this post joined the American Legion. He served as commander for two terms, and also was a member of the Executive Committee of the West Virginia State American Legion, which he helped to organize.

Mr. Robison was elected president of the Morgantown Business Men's Association in the early summer of 1919, and in the same year was active in the organization of the Morgantown Chamber of Commerce, of which he was elected president. He has continued in office to the present. With his family he belongs to the Methodist Protestant Church. As a fraternalist he holds membership in the local lodges of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and the Knights of Pythias.

On November 7, 1912, Mr. Robison married Miss Goldie M. Pixler, daughter of J. C. and Addie Pixler, of Morgan- town, and to this union there have come a son and daughter : James C., born November 10, 1914; and Dorothy Grace, born September 4, 1918.

CLIFFORD STARR MUSSER. In the mutations incident to the solid development of any community there is urgent need of men of wisdom, of strength of character and even of genius in their chosen lines of endeavor, and this applies particularly to the newspaper field, the journals of a local- ity generally reflecting the character and to some extent influencing the course of the people. In the person of Clifford Starr Musser the thriving City of Shepherdstown has a man who possesses the qualities noted above. As publisher and editor of the Shepherdstown Independent he has done much to aid his community and its people, and in business circles, as secretary of the Shepherdstown Chamber of Commerce and secretary of the Morgan Grove Fair As- sociation, has likewise contributed to the progress of the place of his adoption.

Mr. Musser was born at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, Au- gust 5, 1878, and is a son of Charles Edward Musser. His grandfather, Charles Musser, served in a Pennsylvania volunteer infantry regiment of the Union Army during the Civil war, and was captured by the enemy and incarcerated in Libby Prison. Escaping therefrom, he made his way to his home, but his experiences had been such that he died two weeks later.

Charles Edward Musser served an apprenticeship to the printer's trade in the office of the Times-Star at Gettys- burg, Pennsylvania, and for a time published the Mount Holly Echo, at Mount Holly Springs, that state. He is now superintendent of printing of the York (Pennsylvania) Printing Company. Mr. Musser married Amanda Eliza- beth Green, who was born near Fredericksburg, Virginia. Her father, Captain Green, commanded a company of Vir- ginia volunteer infantry in the Confederate Army during the war between the states, and was killed while leading his command in a valiant charge at the battle of the Wil- derness. Mrs. Charles E. Musser died at the age of forty- four years, leaving three children: Edna May, who be- came the wife of Edward Burnaier; Charles Edward, Jr., who is a machinist and linotype operator and now superin- tendent of printing of the Charleston (South Carolina) Observer; and Clifford Starr.

Clifford Starr Musser attended the public schools of Har- risburg and Mount Holly Springs, Pennsylvania, following which he served an apprenticeship to the printer's trade with the Mount Holly Printing Company. After being with that concern for five years he was with the Atlantic City Press as foreman for seven years, and in 1906 came to Shepherdstown and established the Independent, a weekly

newspaper which is devoted to the interests of the entire people and which upholds the principles of the republican party. Mr. Musser presents to his readers an attractive weekly, with authentic news, interesting local items, timely and well-written editorials and other matter of interest, and the publication enjoys a large circulation not only at Shepherdstown but throughout the surrounding country- side. As before noted, he is secretary of the local cham- ber of commerce and of the Morgan Grove Fair Association, and takes an active part in all movements affecting the wel- fare of the community. He is also well known in fraternal cireles, being a thirty-two degree Mason, and holding mem- bership in the following: Mount Nebo Lodge No. 91, A. F. and A. M .; Mecklenburg Chapter, R. A. M .; Martinsburg Lodge of Perfection No. 7; Charleroix Chapter No. 1, Rose Croix; Albert Pike Council, Knights of Kadosh No. 1; and West Virginia Consistory, all of the Masonic fraternity; Caledonia Lodge, I. O. O. F., of which he is a past noble grand; and Washington Lodge No. 8, P. O. S. of A., of which he is a past president and past state officer; and for- mer editor and publisher of the West Virginia Patriot, a monthly journal he founded devoted to the interests of this order.

On May 10, 1922, he assumed the postmastership of Shep- herdstown after being appointed by President Warren G. Harding and confirmed by the United States Senate, and is giving to this office a business administration that in- sures the patrons of this office not only the best of service, but one that will reflect credit upon the incumbent.

On October 5, 1899, Mr. Musser was united in marriage with Miss Ada Florence Wilson, who was born at Shep- herdstown, daughter of Nelson and Mary Ellen Wilson. To this union there have been born two sons: Nelson and William Freeston.

DR. GIDEON THOMAS PLUMMER has had an unusual range of experience as a medical man in the forty odd years he has practiced in West Virginia and elsewhere. For nearly thirty years his home and work have been in Grant County, at the Town of Bayard.

When Doctor Plummer came to Bayard in 1894 it was a new lumber town. The Buffalo Creek Lumber Company had a large mill and a small one operating, and these mills and this large force of men were rapidly beginning the process of stripping the hills and valleys of the fine spruce aud the hemlock which hardwood nature had placed there. Doctor Plummer has witnessed the passing of the lumber resources from this particular locality, and in place of the saw mills mining has become the typical industry, and he witnessed the opening of the first mines.

Doctor Plummer was born at Piedmont, in what was then Hampshire, but is now Mineral County, on March 24, 1859. His father, Patrick Plummer, was born at Summerhill in Cambria County, Pennsylvania, of Pennsylvania-Dutch stock, and became a locomotive engineer of the Baltimore and Ohio Railway before the Civil war, establishing his headquarters at Piedmont in 1853. He continued in the service of this company until his death on August 28, 1889, at the age of fifty-nine years, eleven months and ten days. He was a strong Southern man, and would have joined the Confederate Army had he been called to serv- ice. He was a democrat and a member of the Catholic Church. Patrick Plummer married Susanna Paxton at Piedmont. She was born August 1, 1840, daughter of Jo- seph Paxton, who was born in October, 1793, and died at Piedmont. Mrs. Paxton was born May 22, 1802, and is also buried at Piedmont. Susanna Plummer died at New- burg, June 14, 1904, and is buried beside her husband. Her children were: Laura A., born July 5, 1857, living at Grafton, widow of James Flanagan; Dr. Gideon T .; William, born March 19, 1861, and died June 12, 1862; George McClellen, born April 9, 1863, and died January 10, 1879; Anna, born November 3, 1865, wife of Michael Ma- loney, of Newburg; Catherine, born January 17, 1868, wife of G. A. Frey, of Fairmont; Mollie, born February 27, 1870, wife of John Burk, a locomotive engineer of New- burg; Frank, born May 27, 1875, of Homestead, Pennsyl- vania; Charles E., born March 23, 1878, a locomotive engi-

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neer, living at Newburg; May, born January 12, 1881, wife of Charles Warnick, of Newburg; Edith, born May 15, 1883, wife of William B. Annan, a Newburg druggist.

Doctor Plummer spent most of his useful years at New- hurg in Preston County, attended the public schools there, and for a time did work as a laborer during the construc- tion of the double track of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. He also worked at the round house and the machine shop at Newburg. At the age of seventeen he had made a definite selection of medicine as his life work, and he began his reading under the direction of Dr. William M. Dent of Newburg. Subsequently he entered the College of Physi- cians and Surgeons at Baltimore, and completed his med- ical course in 1881. Soon afterward he began practice at Rowlesburg in Preston County, a year later moved to Simp- son in Taylor County, and leaving there went to Utica, Ne- braska, and had charge of a drug store as prescription clerk for a year. Then, following a visit back home, he located at Arappahoe, Nebraska, and practiced medicine and acted as prescription clerk in a drug store. On return- ing from the West, Doctor Plummer practiced for over a year at Fellowsville in Preston County, and then in the nearby Town of Austin, and subsequently practiced at New- burg and at Corinth.

In 1894 be came to Bayard, establishing his home in that village on July 10th, and his skill and abilities as a physician and his public spirit as a physician have been constantly at the service of the community. Doctor Plum- mer is the present mayor of Bayard, and several times served on the council and as town recorder. He is a demo- crat and is affiliated with the Fraternal Order of Eagles and the Knights of Columbus. During the World war he was a member of the Medical Reserve Corps, but his duty was in his home community. He was also treasurer of the Bayard branch of the Red Cross.

At Newburg, September 28, 1887, Doctor Plummer mar- ried Alice Golden, who was born in July, 1858, daughter of William and Mary (Sherwood) Golden. Doctor and Mrs. Plummer have one daughter, Mary Susan.

WILLIAM COLUMBUS GRIMES, who is established in the practice of his profession at Keyser, judicial center of Mineral County, has to his credit a record that places him among the representative members of the bar of his native state and that marks him as one of the progressive and pub- lic-spirited citizens of this commonwealth.

Mr. Grimes was born in Tyler County, West Virginia, December 5, 1876, and is a son of Jacob C. and Cora V. (Haines) Grimes, the former of whom was born in Bel- mont County, Ohio, December 6, 1852, and the latter of whom was born in what is now Tyler County, West Vir- ginia, where their marriage was solemnized and where they still reside on their farm near Sistersville. Of their chil- dren William C., of this review, is the eldest; Samuel A. resides at Sistersville and is a rural mail carrier, as is also his next younger brother, John R .; Agatha is the wife of Brice Welling, of Tyler County; and James R. remains at the parental home. Jacob C. Grimes is a republican, is a loyal and public-spirited citizen, and he and his wife hold membership in the Christian Church. He is a son of John C. and Nancy (Bishop) Grimes, the former a native of Chillicothe, Ohio, and the latter of Pennsylvania, the death of both having occurred near Barnesville, Ohio. Their chil- dren were six in number: Isaac (a loyal soldier of the Union in the Civil war), George W., Jacob C., Henry, Alonzo and Julia (Mrs. Dallas Baer).

Reared on the home farm and afforded the advantages of the public schools of his native county, William C. Grimes advanced his education by a course in the Ohio Northern University at Ada, Ohio. At the age of nineteen years he engaged in teaching school in Tyler County, West Vir- ginia, and he had successfully taught for six or more terms prior to completing his course in the university at Ada, Ohio. Thereafter he did effective post-graduate work in the University of West Virginia, and after thoroughly fortifying himself for the legal profession he was admit- ted to the bar and in 1904 engaged in the practice of law at Cameron, Marshall County. He tried there his first case

in the Circuit Court, at Moundsville, and there he built up a substantial and important law business. In 1912 he re- moved to Keyser, and here his practice has been of broad scope and representative order, extending into adjoining counties and also into the courts of Maryland. He has presented a number of important cases in the West Vir- ginia Supreme Court as well as in the Federal Courts of the state. Among leading causes with which he has been associated as counsel in presentation before the Supreme Court may be noted the prosecution of Weisengoff for the killing of the sheriff of Mineral County; the State of West Virginia versus Payne, indicted for criminal libel, in which he represented the defendant and secured his acquittal; a case which originated in Grant County and in which he rep- resented the plaintiff in a civil suit for damages for the abduction of a child-the first suit of the kind in the state -this case having been carried to the Supreme Court, where the case was remanded for trial.

Mr. Grimes has never faltered in his allegiance to the republican party from the time of casting his first presiden- tial vote. His first public office was that of mayor of Cam- eron. In 1908 he was elected state senator from the Sec- ond District, comprising Marshall, Wetzel and Tyler coun- ties. In the Senate he was made chairman of the commit- tee on public buildings and humans institutions, and a member of the judiciary and other important committees. He was the author of the first bill presented to regulate automobile traffic on the public highways of the state, championed the primary-election law, the employers' lia- bility act, the depletion tax on natural resources, and se- cured an appropriation for the purchase of the historic mound at Moundsville, to be developed as a state park. In his term of four years he was active and influential on the floor of the Senate and in the deliberations of the com- mittee room. He was also one of the first in the state to champion equal civil rights for women and men. Mr. Grimes was chairman of the Republican Executive Commit- tee of Mineral County from 1914 to 1920, and he served consecutively as chairman of the Republican Committee of the Second Congressional District from 1916 until January 1, 1922, when he resigned. While he was chairman of these committees he did not lose a single political battle. He has been repeatedly a delegate to the West Virginia state conventions of his party, and in the convention of 1920 he was a member of the committee on resolutions, as repre- sentative of his senatorial district. A well merited prefer- ment aud distinction came to Mr. Grimes when, December 30, 1921, he was appointed assistant United States district attorney for the Northern District of West Virginia, the duties of which office he assumed January 1, 1922.

In the World war period Mr. Grimes was chairman of the Mineral County Draft Board, chairman of the Fuel Committee of Mineral County, and chairman of the com- mittee in charge of the drive in the sale of War Savings Stamps. He was one of the leading "Four-Minute Men" who made speeches in promotion of the various local move- ments of patriotic order, was a member of the Red Cross Executive Committee of Mineral County, as is he still, and was registered personally for the last draft, the war hav- ing closed, however, ere he had been classified.

Mr. Grimes is a stockholder in the Echo Printing Com- pany, the Mineral County Coal Company and was one of the organizers and a director of the Cameron Orchard Com- pany and the Mineral County Orchard Company. He is af- filiated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the loyal Order of Moose, and he and his wife hold membership in the Methodist Episcopal Church.

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History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 3, Part 71

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