History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 3, Part 75

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William D. Lewis, though his boyhood was spent in the Civil war period, acquired a liberal education, graduating from Washington and Lee University at Lexington, Vir- ginia. He has kept in close touch with his alma mater, and in 1907 was elected a trustee of that institution. After leaving university Mr. Lewis entered the lumber industry, managing his father's timber lands and manufacturing lumber for a number of years. Since retiring from the lumber industry he has been active in business organizations at Charleston, where he is president of the Hubbard Gro- cery Company and a director of the Kanawha National Bank. Mr. Lewis is an elder in the First Presbyterian Church of Charleston, and politically has always been aligned with the democratic party.

He married Miss Jennie G. Stanley, who is a native of Kanawha County, daughter of Joel Stanley. Mr. and Mrs Lewis have five children: William D., Jr., Mrs. Lynn Hol- derness, John D., Captain Brown and Julia V. Red.

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MAJ. JAMES I. PRATT, a veteran of the Spanish-Ameri- can and Philippine wars and who served as a major in the World war, has been an active business man of Charleston for many years, an official in a prominent machinery and supply business and also in the automobile business.

Major Pratt was born in Ritchie County, West Virginia, in 1879, grew up on a farm and attended country schools. As a youth he became a member of the National Guard of West Virginia, and at the outbreak of the Spanish-Ameri- can war was mustered in with the Second West Virginia Regiment.

Following his return home he entered West Virginia University, from which he graduated in 1901, and then for several years was a worker in the West Virginia oil fields. His home and business interests have been centered at Charleston since 1905. Mr. Pratt is sales manager for and a stockholder in the Capital City Supply Company. This corporation, founded in 1902, does an extensive whole- sale business in mill and mine machinery and supplies, and through its auxiliary concern, the Howell Motor Company, acts as distributors for this territory of the Dodge Broth- ers cars. The company's offices and plant at the corner of Broad and Smith streets comprise one of Charleston's larg- est and most important industrial and commercial enter- prises.

Major Pratt resumed his active connection with the Na- tional Guard after his army service, rose to the rank of major in command of the First Battalion, Second West Vir- ginia Regiment, and became widely known in army circles as an expert in rifle practice. As a rifleman and sharp- shooter he made high scores as a representative of the West Virginia National Guard in the annual rifle tournaments at Camp Perry, Ohio, conducted by the Regular Army. Early in 1918 Major Pratt was called to the United States Army and with the rank of major and assigned to duty as in- structor in the School of Instruction for Army Officers at Camp Perry. About 5,000 young officers passed through this school, the first classes being given a thirty-day course. As the war grew more serious in the summer of that year, the work of the school was broadened to a six weeks' in- tensive course. The faculty of this school was composed of the very best rifle shots in the United States Army at the time, the instructors being all National Guardsmen, se- lected for their ability to shoot and to teach others to shoot.

While in the service Major Pratt, in association with Prof. Charles S. Hastings of Yale University, designed and perfected a rifle known as the "special model United States Army Rifle, model of 1918," a rifle having a high degree of accuracy and a telescope sight adjusted to the last de- gree for windage, elevation and zero. It was designed par- ticularly for sniping purposes and to be used by snipers especially trained for this hazardous service. It was adopted by the army, but facilities had not been perfected for its manufacture before the close of the war.

Major Pratt received his honorable discharge in Febru- ary, 1919, and then returned to Charleston and resumed his active association with the Capital City Supply Com- pany. He is a leader in Charleston business and civic af- fairs, is a director of the Kanawha County Bank and mem- ber of the Kiwanis Club.

ALICE SWANEY, M. D. The professional career of Dr. Alice Swaney, which it is proposed briefly to sketch, embraces a period of eighteen years, practically all of which have been passed at New Cumberland. It possesses some features of interest, inasmuch as it assisted in breaking through the barrier of professional bigotry which had to some extent before her coming excluded women from practicing the healing art in a professional way. To her example, winning by assiduous attention to her profes- sional calls and by profound knowledge of the art and skill in its practice a place among the reputable prac- titioners of medicine and surgery in Hancock County, has been due in a measure the rapid advancement made recently by her sex in this field of effort.

Doctor Swaney was born at New Cumberland, Han- cock County, West Virginia, and is a daughter of John

S. and Ella (Grafton) Swaney. The Swaney family, which originated in Holland, has resided for many years in Pennsylvania, where was born Isaac Swaney, the grand- father of Doctor Swaney. He was a carpenter by trade and was ten years of age when brought by his parents to the vicinity of New Cumberland, where he spent his life in working at his vocation. He died in Hancock County dur- ing the Civil war period, at the age of fifty-five years, after a career that had included only an industrious application to his trade, without any public achievements. His wife, who bore the maiden name of Margaret Summerwell, was also a native of Pennsylvania, and died in Hancock County in extreme old age.

John S. Swaney, father of Doctor Swaney, was born in Beaver County, Pennsylvania, April 3, 1845, and as a child was brought by his parents to Lexington, three miles above New Cumberland. During his early years be mastered the trade of stone mason, which he followed in connec- tion with farming. During the Civil war he enlisted in Company F, First Regiment, West Virginia Volunteer In- fantry, which was later consolidated with other troops, becoming the Second Veterans. Mr. Swaney's brother, T. R., served in the same company, and a younger brother, S. D., served in the Fourth West Virginia Cavalry. Both are now deceased. Following the war Mr. Swaney resumed his operations as a stone mason and farmer, but gradually gave up the former vocation. He became interested in the breeding of track horses and had a number of good performers which brought fancy prices. One of these, "Sul- tan,'' was a noted prize-winner at the Pittsburgh Horse Show. In 1881 Mr. Swaney was elected sheriff of Han- cock County, serving in that office until 1884, and again in 1889 was chosen for that position, and served until 1893. Later he acted for six years as a member of the d Board of County Commissioners, and his entire record in both offices was a splendid one. He has always been an active republican. In 1871, at the age of twenty-six years, Mr. Swaney was united in marriage with Miss Ella Graf- ton, who was born October 13, 1848, and died August 11, 1921, after fifty years of married life, their Golden Wed- ding Anniversary having been celebrated at San Diego, California. They were the parents of two children: Wil- liam Grafton, who has medical courses at the University of West Virginia and the University of Pennsylvania, but became a business man and was Pacific Coast manager for the Ingersoll Construction Company at Portland, Oregon, when he died at the age of thirty-five years; and Alice.

William Hill Grafton, the maternal great-grandfather of Doctor Swaney, was born April 13, 1787, in Harford County, Maryland, and came to what is now' Hancock County West Virginia (then in Virginia) in the year tes 1806. On July 19, 1807, he married Nancy Baker, of Virginia, born in February, 1789. William Hill Grafton was the first postmaster of the Town of New Cumberland, assuming the duties of that office in 1844. In the year 1840 he helped organize the Christian Church, the first o church organized at this place, and from 1850 until 1856 B he served as sheriff of Hancock County. He and Thomas Bousall were the first merchants of New Cumberland. o Mr. Grafton was the father of a large family, among his children being Nathan Baker Grafton, who was born April 3, 1819. On January 22, 1848, he married Rachel he Chapman. Nathan B. Grafton became the first school teacher of New Cumberland, in 1845, and also followed merchandising, traveling about once a year by stage and je canal boat to Philadelphia in order to replenish his or stock. He served as county supervisor, which corresponds with the present office of county commissioner, and in his hi later years was a justice of the peace.

Ella Grafton Swaney, the wife of John S. Swaney, and he Charles Edwin Grafton, the mother and uncle of Dr. Alice fre Swaney, were daughter and son of Nathan B. Grafton. ee Ella G. Swaney was born October 13, 1848, graduated from art Pleasant Hill Seminary, Washington County, Pennsylvania, in the year 1865, married John S. Swaney March 23, 1871, and died July 11, 1921. Charles Edwin Grafton, M. S., C. E .. brother of Mrs. John S. Swaney was born Septem-

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er 15, 1854, and in 1880 graduated from West Virginia University, being the first graduate of that institution o receive the degree of civil engineer. His work hae been argely confined to railroad construction, and during his areer he has held responsible positions with the Illinois 'entral, Baltimore & Ohio and Union Pacific railroads nd others. During the past ten years he has been county ngineer for Hancock County, his present post. He is a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers.

Alice Swaney, following her graduation from high chool, spent three years at Oberlin and then enrolled as student at the Women's Medical College, Philadelphia, rom which she was graduated as a member of the class f 1903, receiving her degree of Doctor of Medicine. For ne year thereafter she did post-graduate work in the Vomen's Hospital, Philadelphia, and then began the gen- ral practice of her calling. She is a member of the Hancock County Medical Society, the West Virginia State fedical Society and the American Medical Association, nd acts as medical examiner in the public schools. While ot a suffragette, in the generally accepted meaning of he term, she believes in equal suffrage for her sex. Her wn example is a stimulating one. She has arisen to nfluence and has obtained recognition through solid merit, ounded upon good natural abilities, ripened by liberal cholastic training and matured by thorough scientific study nd long, continuous and assiduous practice. With all her cquisitions she has fully preserved the innate delicacy of er womanly nature, and is none the less a lady because he has become a physician. Her religious connection is with the old Christian Church, the first church to be estab- ished at New Cumberland.

JOHN BENTLEY NEWELL. The influence exerted by the eeds of those who never seek publicity, but who are ver ready to do their part in the world's work for civili- ation and progress, is a very potent one. Transitory uccess comes to some who disregard the principles of onor and morality, but once they are removed from heir scene of action the lack of merit in their work 3 soon realized, and their names are used but to illus- rate the uselessness of their manner of living. The man ho is remembered is the one who puts self last; who ndeavors to give to others a little more than the treat- ient he wants for himself, and who is willing to make ome sacrifice for the good of his fellow-mien. Such a ian can be depended upon and his life is a benefit to the ommunity. Judged by these standards, the late John bentley Newell, of Newell, West Virginia, measured up to e highest ideals of good citizenship, and although a num- er of years have passed since he was called to his final est, he lives in the memory of his friends as the highest pe of manhood.

John Bentley Newell was born April 12, 1839, at the 'd mill on Tomlinson's Run, in Hancock County, West irginia, a son of John and Lydia Ann (Edie) Newell. ohn Newell, father of John B. Newell, was born near urgettstown, Washington County, Pennsylvania, in 1796, son of Hugh Newell who with his brother had removed Vance's Fort soon after the close of the Revolutionary ar. Hugh Newell built one of the first brick houses in ashington County, Pennsylvania, and John Newell built te first house of brick at Pughtown in Hancock County, 1 old residence that is still standing. He also owned tannery, which he operated for some years, even after , had secured what later became known as the Hart- ord Flour Mill, on Tomlinson's Run, about four miles om the Ohio. He built flatboats, which he ran down the hio River to New Orleans, carrying flour and leather, d would then walk back to his home. About 1850 he sold e mill to a man named Hartford and located on the 'esent Newell farm, to which he brought his wife, who had ten Lydia Ann Edie, of Fairview. This farm was a art of the Greathouse tract or grant, and the old deed Greathouse is still held by the Newell family. The iginal settler, named Greathouse, whose cabin was on e left bank of Tub Mill Run; at the entrance to the 1 lio (the cellar being still visible), was killed by an Vol. III-27

Indian floating down the river in a canoe. The place is now included in the village of Newell. W. F. Lloyd, a steel manufacturer of Pittsburgh, bought parts of four farms, that of Newell, Wells, McDonald and Moore, but sold out some twenty years later to the North American Manufacturing Company, who really started the town, the first step being to erect a bridge from East Liver- pool. The farm extended to the Ohio and reached back as far as the hill, which is some 500 feet above the river level. The pottery, of course, was down by the flat on the river. The farm had formerly been occupied and rented by Alexander Edie, the brother of Lydia Ann (Edie) Newell, and was purchased by John Newell from a Mr. Glass and others. It contained 320 acres, on which Mr. Newell made many improvements, including a brick residence. He built his pottery on the site of the present station at Newell, on the right bank of Tub Mill Run, the first pottery on the West Virginia side of the river, and in his two-kiln plant, with its thirty or forty em- ployes, manufactured a creditable article of yellow-ware. John Newell died in 1884, when eighty-eight years of age. He married Lydia Ann Edie in 1826, and she died in 1844, the mother of seven children: Hugh, a sketch of whose career will be found elsewhere in this work, in the record of John F. Newell; William, of Berthoud, Colo- rado; Rev. James, of Los Angeles, California; George, of Delta County, Colorado; John Bentley; Lizzie, who mar- ried Alfred Marks, owner of the old Marks farm at Chester; and Rachel, who married George Harker, a pot- ter at East Liverpool: Mr. and Mrs. Harker had a son, William Harker, president of the Potters National Bank of East Liverpool, whose son, Robert, still resides at Newell, and is one of the owners of the Harker Pottery, founded by his grandfather.

John Bentley Newell was ten years of age when brought by his parents to the home farm and his education was acquired in the public schools. During the Civil war he served as a lieutenant in the Home Guards, and was twice called into active service, once during the time of Morgan's Raid. With this exception his life was a quiet one, and he was content to remain on his farm, where his industry and good management, together with his intelligent application of modern methods, won him success. His integrity and prohity were universally recognized, while he was also a strong temperance man, and in this connection it may be noted that Hancock County had never had a licensed saloon within its borders. He never cared for public life. He and his worthy wife were members of the First Presbyterian Church of Newell, West Virginia, in the faith of which Mr. Newell died October 21, 1914, and Mrs. Newell, October 19, 1910. At the age of twenty- six years Mr. Newell married the twenty-one-year-old daughter of Dr. Robert A. Johnston, a physician of Wells- ville, Miss Margaret Jane Johnston, who was born at Noblestown, Pennsylvania, and to this union there were born the following children: Carrie, a teacher in the public schools of East Liverpool, who died unmarried December 20, 1919; James, residing at home, who has been active in promoting the Newell bridge and other enterprises, married Maud Croxall, of East Liverpool; and Charlee B., Ada and Robert C. (Bert), all unmarried and at home.

Robert C. Newell attended George Washington University in 1905, following which he pursued his law course at the West Virginia University as a student in jurisprudence and diplomacy. An amusing incident of his college days, which he vividly recalls, is the following: On the day succeeding the historic victory of West Virginia Univer- sity over Washington and Jefferson College the students desired to celebrate, and President Purington, seeing little chance of keeping them from their desires, gave his con- sent. The law students, raising a great yell on the campus, succeeded in bringing out several classes from recitations and the crowd became greatly augmented. Finally the disturbance reached the class taught by Mise Johnson, whose determined stand and uncompromising demeanor abashed and bluffed the entire crowd of law students.

Mr. Newell was admitted to the bar in 1908, and

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immediately engaged in a general practice of his pro- fession, to which, however, he does not devote his entire attention, being also a farmer and fruit grower. The Newell Fruit Farm now consists of 254 acres, with some five acres in small fruits and thirty-five acres in apples and peaches. John Bentley Newell, who conducted this farm as a sheep breeding property for a number of years, later in life became interested in fruit and was the originator of the Red Willow apple, which has become one of the leading varieties and which is produced on this farm, as well as Grimes Golden and Elberta peaches. The old residence stands well up on the bluff, one-half mile back from the river, but not with a view. It was the center of the social life of the community for more than a half a century, and its doors have always been kept hospitably open. The Newells have ever stood for high standards of citizenship, their influence always for progress, advancement and betterment of couditions in the community which houored John Bentley Newell by the adoption of his name.

WALTER S. LINK, M. D., who died in the City of Parkers- burg on the 6th of March, 1921, justified in able and faith- ful service his choice of vocation, and by his sterling char- acter and marked technical skill honored the profession in which he achieved high standing and unequivocal success. He built up a large and representative general practice in the City of Parkersburg, and held rank as one of the leading physicians and surgeons of Wood County at the time of his death, in the very prime of his strong and useful life.

Dr. Walter Scott Link was born in Jefferson County, West Virginia, on the 13th of July, 1870, and was a son of Thomas and Elizabeth Jane (Melvin) Link. The lineage of the Link family traces back to German origin, seven brothers of the name having come from Germany and settled in America prior to the war of the Revolution, and from these founders descend the representatives of the name now found in various states of the Union. Members of the family were gallant soldiers of the Continental Line in the War of the Revolution, and the War of 1812 like- wise gained loyal soldiers from this family of American patriots. Virtually every war in which this country has been involved has claimed members of the Link family as soldiers. Adam Link, an ancestor of the subject of this memoir, was a patriot soldier in the Revolution, and in a cemetery in Jefferson County, West Virginia, are the graves of soldiers of the Link family who served in all other wars of the nation in their day and generation. Thomas Link was a gallant soldier of the Confederacy in the War be- tween the States, took part in various battles and was severely wounded while participating in an engagement near Winchester. After the war he continued his activities as one of the representative farmers of Jefferson County, and there both he and his wife passed the remainder of their lives, secure in the high esteem of all who knew them. They became the parents of the following children: John A., Edward M., Thomas O., Jacob Albert, Adam G. (a minister of the gospel), Davis Beauregard, Charles W. and Walter S.

Dr. Walter S. Link found the period of his childhood and early youth compassed by the invigorating influences of the home farm, and in the meanwhile he made good use of the advantages offered by the public schools of his native county. After his graduation in the high school at Shenandoah he entered the University of West Virginia, in which he was in due time graduated, with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. In preparation for his chosen pro- fession he was matriculated in the Baltimore Medical Col- lege at Baltimore, Maryland, and in this institution he was graduated as a member of the class of 1897. After thus receiving his degree of Doctor of Medicine he further fortified himself by an effective post-graduate course in the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary, in which great institution he served three years as house surgeon. About 1900 Doctor Link established his residence at Parkersburg, and while his practice was of general order in its earlier stages, it was as a specialist in the diagnosis and treat- ment of diseases of the ear, nose and throat that he gained

his major success and reputation. In this special field of practice his fame far transcended local limitations, and he gained authoritative status as a specialist along these lines.

In 1902 Doctor Link showed his high sense of profes- sional stewardship and his civic progressiveness by estab- lishing a private hospital in his home city, and to this institution came patients from the most diverse sections of the Union to avail themselves of its advantages and of the able service of Doctor Link.

As was to be anticipated in connection with a person of so great patriotism and high ideals as those of Doctor Link, he was among the first to tender his aid to the Gov- ernment when it became apparent that the United States must become actively involved in the great World war. In December, 1917, he enlisted in the medical corps of the United States Army, was commissioned lieutenant and later promoted to a captaincy, and his arduous and un- remitting work in connection with the development of the nation's medical department for war service was the pre- disposing cause of his untimely death. He continued his service in the medical corps until his impaired health made necessary his retirement, and in the loved city of his home he passed the closing days of his earnest and noble life, loved for his kindliness and abiding human sympathy, and admired for the splendid service which he had given in his exacting profession. The Doctor was an appreciative and valued member of the Wood County Medical Society, and likewise was actively identified with the West Vir- ginia State Medical Society and the American Medical Association, as well as the Southern Medical Society. Doc- tor Link was an exceptional Bible student and was a zeal- ous member of the Presbyterian Church. His widow is a member of the Catholic Church. He was a member of the Parkersburg Chamber of Commerce, the local Kiwanis Club, and the Parkersburg Lodge of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. In the Masonic fraternity he received the thirty-second degree of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, his maximum York Rite affiliation being with the Parkersburg Commandery of Knights Templars, and his Masonic activities having further been extended by his identification with the Mystic Shrine.

On the 22d of July, 1902, was solemnized the marriage of Doctor Link and Miss Mary Eleanor Prendergast, daughter of Thomas and Julliette Burea (Cummings) Pren- dergast. Mrs. Link was born in the city of Brooklyn, New York, was graduated in Chestnut Hill Convent and the New York Polyclinic Hospital as a trained nurse. Her career, as was that of her husband, has been one of dis- tinet consecration to high effort in the relieving of human suffering, and she has seen much of hospital service, be- sides rendering aid to those in distress wherever and when- ever her efficient service was required. She proved a devoted and helpful coadjutor of her husband in the main- tenance of his hospital, and was his counselor in all de- partments of his work. In continued service she finds the greatest mede of consolation now that her loved companion has passed to the life eternal. Dr. and Mrs. Link became the parents of one daughter, Julliette Elizabeth, and the pleasant home in Parkersburg is known for its gracious hospitality.

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History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 3, Part 75

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