History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 3, Part 78

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Joseph B. Allison passed practically all his life on his 700-acre farm in Grant District, where he applied himself

R.C. Sauce

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HISTORY OF WEST VIRGINIA

to farming and dairying. He was well thought of in his community as to ability and personal qualities, but never cared for public office, being content with his farm and his home. He married Mary E. Riley, who was born in what is now Chester, June 25, 1863, a daughter of Enoch and Sarah (Daniels) Riley. Enoch Riley was born in Staffordshire, England, and on coming to the United States was first engaged in farming. Later he conducted a hotel at East Liverpool and was also the part owner of a pot- tery, and his thirty-five-acre farm is now included within the city limits of Chester, where he died in August, 1890. Two children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Allison: Arthur G .; and Sarah A., the wife of Harry E. Hall, a dairyman and fruit grower on the old farm.

Arthur G. Allison spent his boyhood on the home farm and attended first the public schools in the country and Jater the high school at East Liverpool, from which he was graduated as a member of the class of 1901. He then en- tered the law department of the West Virginia University, where he received his degree in 1904, and since that time has been engaged in a general practice at Chester. At various times he has been called to public office, having been city attorney, secretary of the Board of Education and city tax collector, is a notary public, and for thir- teen years has been a justice of the peace, now being in his third term in that office. A republican in politics, Mr. Allison has done some active and effective work in his party and is accounted one of its influential members. He is secretary of the local republican club and a mem- ber of the county committee, and has been a delegate to state conventions. Fraternally Mr. Allison is a charter member of the local lodge of the Knights of Pythias. He is unmarried.

HON. J. NESSLY PORTER. In business and public circles of Hancock County few names are better or more favor- ahly known than that of J. Nessly Porter, secretary-treas- urer of the Globe Brick Company and the present state senator of the First District, comprising Hancock, Brooke and Ohio counties, West Virginia.

Mr. Porter is a son of the late Capt. John Porter, one of the best known figures in the paving brick industry in this country, a sketch of whose career will be found on another page of this work. Since boyhood he has been identified with the brick business, and at the same time has found the opportunity to interest himself in public affairs, in which he has become prominent. Ever a promi- nent worker in party conventions, in 1915 he was chosen as the representative in the Lower House of the West Virginia Legislature of Hancock County, a post to which he was re-elected and established a splendid record. He was then sent to the Upper House, where he is an influential member of the judiciary committee and chairman of the insurance committee. He is a prominent Mason and has numerous business and civic connections. Mr. Porter mar- ried Miss Margaret Rinehart, of East Liverpool, Ohio, and they are the parents of two sons: James Nessly and Winston Allen.

JAMES BENNETT PORTER is vice president of the Globe Brick Company, representing one of the important industrial enterprises of Hancock County, and since 1909 he has main- tained active supervision of a portion of the old Mahan fruit farm near Arroyo, this county, a property inherited by his mother. In this latter connection he is one of the exten- sive apple growers of his native county, and has on the farm a finely productive orchard that receives scientific care. Of both the Porter and Mahan families, representing the paternal and maternal ancestry of Mr. Porter, adequate record is given in other personal reviews in this volume, he being a son of John and Carrie (Mahan) Porter and having been born at New Cumberland, judicial center of Hancock County, on the 14th of November, 1882.

Mr. Porter was afforded the advantages of the well or- dered public schools of his native county, and as a youth he became actively identified with the manufacturing of brick, with which industry he has continued his association to the present time, the Globe Brick Company, of which

he is vice president, being one of the largest concerns of the kind in this section of the state. The family home of Mr. Porter is maintained in the attractive and modern house which he erected at Arroyo and which commands a fine view up and down the Ohio River and also of the Ohio shore district. Mr. Porter is liberal and progressive as a citizen but has had no desire for political activity or public office. He is affiliated with both the York and Scottish Rite hodies of the time-honored Masonic fraternity.

The year 1912 recorded the marriage of Mr. Porter and Miss Josephine Lovell, of Boston, Massachusetts, she being a graduate of Wellesley College and having come to Han- cock County, West Virginia, to visit a classmate, Mary Anna Brenneman, daughter of Herman Brenneman. Ro- mance here became her portion, for here she formed the acquaintance of Mr. Porter, whose importunities resulted in her here remaining as his wife. Mrs. Porter was active in Red Cross and other patriotic service in the World war period, as was also her husband, and she is an active mem- ber of the Nessly Chapel of the Methodist Protestant Church at Arroyo. Mr. and Mrs. Porter have five children, namely: James B., Jr., John Ethan, Josephine Natalie, Helen Cross and Leah Lovell.

ROBERT CLINTON DANCER is president and general man- ager of R. C. Dancer, Incoporated, a business that stands in the very front rank among the wholesale wall paper houses of the Ohio Valley. The business, in fact, is national in scope. Mr. Dancer was some years ago a modest merchant in wall paper and floor coverings at Mannington, West Virginia, but later moved his business to Wheeling, where it has enjoyed its greatest growth and prosperity and has become exclusively a wall paper house.

One of the fundamental principles for success in mer- chandising is giving and maintaining the personal touch between the merchant and his customer. With the devel- opment and complex organization of merchandising, to a point where the merchant is really a big executive who seldom meets even a small percentage of his "trade," a substitute for the personal touch has been found in the product of the busy typewriter and in that vital and vigorous form of communication generally described as advertising. Advertising is, in fact, the great modern means utilized by merchant manufacturer in telling his customers what he has to sell and vouching for its merits. In the development of this modern phase of the mercantile business Mr. Dancer has achieved a most unusual success, and that success has been instrumental in the growth of his great business at Wheeling. In the interest of his business he has for about a year issued a monthly publica- tion known as "the Sample Stand," and through this, in addition to his large volume of private correspondence, he is able to keep his customers and trade friends apprised of new developments in the wall paper business and his own qualifications to supply the needs of the trade. The novel quality of his little publication has attracted many favorable comments from some of the foremost manu- facturers, importers and dealers in wall paper throughout the country. Here it is possible to quote only one of the many letters Mr. Dancer receives commending his publica- tion. The following is a paragraph from the secretary of one of the large manufacturers of paper hanging at Buffalo: "Such an attractive means of communication with your customers, advising them educationally and other- wise, for the good of their business, is something which should result in much mutual benefit, and we think you have gotten off to a good start. In practice, you are a good subject for membership in Rotary, whose motto is: 'He profits most who serves best.' "'

Mr. Dancer was born at Mannington, West Virginia, May 29, 1875. His father, Jesse Dancer, was born in this state in 1826 and spent his entire life in Mannington and vicinity. He was a carpenter by trade, for some years had charge of the building of bridges for the Baltimore & Ohio Po'Tway Company. - 'be created many residences and busiu

"ges in * .ington. He dled in that city

in 1889. served he last two years of the war in the Un on j, was always a stanch republican, was at

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one time mayor of Mannington and a leading member of the Presbyterian Church of that city. He was affiliated with the Masonic order. Jesse Dancer was twice married. By his first wife he had eight children, and three of them are still living. W. S. Dancer, a contracting carpenter at Fairmont, West Virginia; Maggie, wife of James Koon, a farmer at Weston; and Mrs. Henry Tutt, wife of a marble cutter living at Grafton. The second wife of Jesse Dancer was Sarah Helms, who was born in West Virginia, in 1844 and died at Mannington in 1909. Robert Clinton Dancer is the only child of this marriage.

He spent his early life at Mannington, attended public school there to the age of fourteen, and learned business through a long and diligent practice as an employee of the Snodgrass Brothers' general store. He remained with that firm in a working capacity for ten years, and he and H. B. Beaty then bought out the business and conducted it from 1900 to 1905. In 1905 the partnership of Dancer & Burgess was formed at Mannington, and they engaged in the wholesale and retail wall paper and floor covering business. In 1909, seeking a more central city for their growing business, they removed to Wheeling, and in 1914 the partnership was dissolved and since then Mr. Dancer has been the active head of the establishment. For some years the business has been exclusively wall paper, and this is without doubt the largest wholesale concern in West Virginia in this line. The store and offices are at 1121 Market Street, the store extending to 1118 Main Street. Mr. Dancer handles one of the finest lines of wall paper in the United States, and he does a large business even in New York City and as far west as the Pacific Coast. In December, 1920, he incorporated as R. C. Dancer, In- corporated, of which he is president and general manager.

Mr. Dancer is also a director of the Quarter Savings & Trust Company of Wheeling. He is a republican, a mem- her of Wheeling Lodge No. 5, F. and A. M., West Virginia Consistory No. 1, of the Scottish Rite, Wheeling Lodge No. 28, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and is a mem- ber of the Rotary Club, the Wheeling Country Club and the Fort Henry Club. His home is at. Birch Lynn, Wheel- ing. In 1905, at Mannington, Mr. Dancer married Miss Bessie Craker, daughter of John and Rose (Skinner) Craker, now deceased. Her father was an oil operator. Mrs. Dancer is a graduate of Keemar College of Hagerstown, Maryland.

CHILTON KENNA OXLEY is vice president and general manager of the corporation of Oxley, Troeger & Oxley, which conducts one of the leading clothing establishments in the City of Huntington, the modern and finely equipped store being at 917 Fourth Avenue, and the interested prin- cipals in the company being likewise identified with the Oxley-Boone Company, which conducts a clothing store at 420 Ninth Street in this city.

Mr. Oxley was born on a farm near Griffithsville, Lin- coln County, West Virginia, on the 10th of July, 1878, and his personal names were given in honor of Hon. William E. Chilton, former United States senator from this state and now a resident of Charleston, and the late Hon. John E. Kenna, of Charleston, who was one of the distinguished men of the state and who represented West Virginia in the Senate of the United States.

Thomas L. Oxley, father of the subject of this review, was born at Rocky Mount, Virginia, in 1826, and died at Scott Depot, Putnam County, West Virginia, in 1909. He came to what is now West Virginia within a short time after his marriage and settled on Horse Creek, near Grif- fithsville, Lincoln County, where he acquired a large tract of land and developed a productive farm, this land having later become very valuable on account of its coal deposits. In 1896 he left his old homestead and removed to Scott Depot, where he passed the remainder of his long, useful and honorable life. He was a democrat, served two terms as sheriff of Lincoln County, and was influential in com- munity affairs. Both he and his wife were zealous mem- bers of the Baptist Church ' > his was the dirinction of having been a loyal soldier of Confede- «the Civil

war. His wife died on the old he neste. d n County in 1880. Matilda, eldest of the children, renides at

Huntington, she being the widow of James C. Reynolds, who was a successful merchant at Milton, this state; Dr. Silas W., an able physician and surgeon, died at Hamlin, Lincoln County, in 1887; Marinda died in childhood; Watt S. is the senior member of the clothing concern of Oxley, Troeger & Oxley of Huntington; Archibald L. was a teacher in the public schools at the time of his death, in 1897; Demetrius C., a telegraph operator by vocation, died at Malden, West Virginia, in 1907; and Chilton K., of this sketch, is the youngest of the number.

Chilton K. Oxley is indebted to the schools of Lincoln and Putnam counties for his youthful education, and he continued his association with the activities of his father's farm until he was eighteen years of age. When hut nine years of age Mr. Oxley determined to become a merchant, and even thus early was shown his predilection for this line of business, besides which he showed his self-reliant initi- ative ability. He went up into the hills of Lincoln County, there cut down small poplar trees, and with this material constructed a little building which he equipped as a store and which received the "patronage" of other youngsters of the community.

At the age of eighteen years Mr. Oxley found employ- ment in the general store conducted by E. L. Hollinsworth at Milton, Cabell County, his wages at the start being $10 a month. He continued this connection two years and then, in 1899, obtained a position in the clothing establishment of G. A. Northcott & Company of Huntington, with which concern he remained thirteen years and gained a thorough knowledge of all details of the business. In 1912 he be- came the organizer of the present corporation of Oxley, Troeger & Oxley, which is incorporated under the laws of the state and which now conducts one of the leading cloth- ing and men's furnish-goods establishments in the City of Huntington. His brother Watt S. is president of the com- pany, he himself is vice president and general manager, and John T. Troeger is secretary and treasurer.

Mr. Oxley is a progressive and public-spirited citizen ; is a democrat in politics; is an active member of the Hunt- ington Business Men's Association, of which be was presi- dent in 1916; is a member of the Huntington Chamber of Commerce; and is a director of the West Virginia Retail Clothiers Association. He and his wife are members of the First Methodist Episcopal Church, North, at Hunting- ton, and he is serving as a member of its board of trus- tees. He holds membership in the Guyan Country Club. Mr. Oxley is the owner of valuable real estate in Hunting- ton, including his attractive home property at 622 Trenton Place. In the World war period his patriotic spirit and loyal liberality were distinctly in evidence. He was a member of the executive committee of the Cabell County Chapter of the Red Cross, aided actively in the local cam- paigns in support of the Government bond issues, etc., and made his individual contributions most liberal.

September 17, 1902, recorded the marriage of Mr. Ox- ley and Miss Frances Eskey, daughter of John N. and Jennie Eskey, who now reside at Hampton, Virginia, Mr. Eskey being a retired mechanic and having been formerly employed in the United States shipyards. Mr. and Mrs Oxley have no children.

HON. JOHN J. CORNWELL. Probably the great majority of the people of West Virginia, regardless of party, would fully endorse the words of the democratic state platform of 1920 when it speaks of "the administration of our great war governor as one of the most dignified, able and cour- ageous in the history of the state. He has lifted the governorship to a high plane, which is gratifying to the people of the state."

John J. Cornwell has for many years had the esteem and confidence of his home people in Romney and Hamp- shire County. He was born in Ritchie County, July 11, 1867, of Jacob H. and Mary E. (Taylor) Cornwell.

The future governor was educated in Shepherd College at Shepherdstown, and soon after leaving that institution he began a career as a publisher and editor, and has been principal owner of the Hampshire Review since 1890. He was active in its management as editor until 1917, when

Chas Carlies

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he removed to Charleston. Mr. Cornwell has long been a leader in the democratic party of the state, and was a delegate to the national conventions of 1896 and 1912 and gave a service for ten years, from 1896 to 1906, as a mem- ber of the West Virginia Senate. He was democratic nominee for governor in 1904, and in 1916 he had the remarkable distinction of being the only democratic nominee on the state ticket to be elected. He began his term as governor in 1917, and served until 1921, when he resumed his home and the management of his business interests at Romney.

Mr. Cornwell financed and built the Hampshire Southern Railroad, a line forty miles long, has been president of the Bank of Romney, of the South Branch Development Company, the South Branch Tie & Lumber Company, is now a director in the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Com- pany, and has held the office of secretary and treasurer of the Appalachian Orchard Company. He has been one of the prominent editors of the state, has made a reputation as a forceful writer, and aside from his routine contribu- tions to the press is author of a book entitled "Knock About Notes, " published in 1915. He is a Mason and Odd Fellow.

June 30, 1891, Mr. Cornwell married Edna Brady, of Romney.

FLOYD H. HARLESS, a Charleston attorney, where he has been in active practice for over ten years, has the honor of being state councillor for West Virginia of the Order United American Men. As head of this order in the state he is greatly interested in spreading its principles and making the order a vehicle of genuine service and usefulness as a defender and propagator of real Americanism and good citizenship.

Mr. Harless inherits some of the strong and sturdy char- acter of his ancestors, who have lived in the Mountain State for several generations. He was born on the Harless homestead on the Straight Fork of Mud River in Lincoln County in 1884. His parents, G. W. and Louisa E. (Humphrey) Harless, are still living, the former a native of Lincoln and the latter of Kanawha County. Harless is a name of German origin, but the first American ancestor settled in Virginia about the time of the Revolution. He reared a family of eleven sons and two daughters. Four of these children lived to be over 100 years old, and in all the generations the Harlesses have been noted for long life. The grandfather of the Charleston lawyer was Rev. Edwin Harless, who lived to be over ninety years of age, and for seventy of those years was an active Baptist minister.

Floyd H. Harless attended the country schools of Lincoln County, Marshall College at Huntington, and studied law in West Virginia University at Morgantown. He finished his law course in 1910, was admitted to the bar the same year, and at once located at Charleston, where among many of the state's foremost lawyers he has won creditable dis- tinction by his abilities and has been favored with a grow- ing general practice. His practice is in the various County, State and Federal courts. He is a member of the Knights of Pythias and Odd Fellows.

PATRICK W. FLOURNOY. The character of the men of a community may be correctly gauged by the standing of its business houses, whose growth has been stimulated by progressive and intelligent methods, or held back through laek of proper development. No town or city can reach, its highest standard of development unless its men in all lines co-operate to give an honest service for value received. Such men can be counted upon to promulgate and support worthy measures looking toward securing for their com- munity solid improvements and the bringing into it of solid business houses that will add to its prosperity. They give solidity to commercial organizations and contribute liberally toward worthy movements of an educational and religious character. Judged by these standards, one of Charleston's useful citizens is Patrick W. Flournoy, whose long associa- tion with the Charleston Hardware Company, of which he is the president, has brought him into close connections with

the mercantile trade of Charleston and Southern West Vir- ginia.

Mr. Flournoy was born in Charlotte County, Virginia, in 1873, and is the son of a druggist whose father was a physician. He received a public school education and at the age of sixteen years joined an engineering party en- gaged in work on the Norfolk & Western Railroad, with which he came to Charleston, arriving in this city on election day, November, 1892. Here he secured employment with . the Goshorn Hardware Company, the oldest concern of its kind at Charleston, by which company he continued to be employed until the organization in 1901 of the wholesale firm of the Charleston Hardware Company, founded by F. H. Markell, manager. The business was capitalized at $50,000, and there were about forty stockholders, among them Mr. Flournoy, who straightway began to secure addi- tional stock. T. E. Embleton was the first president. After two years Mr. Markell resigned and was succeeded by Mr. Flournoy, who later became president. He continued to buy more stock until finally he became principal owner of the business, of which he is now president, although it continues to be conducted under the original name. The capital stoek is now $100,000 and the capital and surplus, $400,000, all of which has been built up from the original capital of $50,000. The company owns its own warehouses on the railroad, as well as its other property, and deals in general hardware and mine supplies, catering to the needs of the mines of Southern West Virginia, mainly, although its territory is not entirely restricted to this area. The plant consists of five stories and a basement, in which there are thirty employes, in addition to which there are seven traveling salesmen. The first year's sales of the business amounted to $100,000, while at the present time the annual sales approximate $1,000,000, and the business is being con- stantly developed and enlarged. Mr. Flournoy gives his entire attention to this business, which has reached its pres- ent large proportions principally because of his business ability, foresight, acumen and clear-headed judgment, to- gether with his industry and well-known business integrity. Mr. Flournoy has always been a supporter of worthy move- ments tending to advance the best interests of the com. munity. He is a Knight Templar and also a Scottish Rite Mason, a Noble of the Mystic Shrine, and a member of the Edgewood Country Club.

Mr. Flournoy married Miss Grace Hathaway, a resident of Cincinnati at the time of their marriage, but a native of England, and to this union there has been born one son, Patrick W., Jr.

CHARLES CORLISS, whose experience in the building of public works is practically nation wide, has for some years been settled down as a resident and business man at West Virginia and has been one of the principals in developing an important industry for the supply of building material at New Martinsville, where he is president of the Ohio River Gravel Company.

Mr. Corliss was born in Monroe County, Wisconsin, May 7, 1864. His father, Samuel Corliss, who was born in Vermont in 1841, was a rugged New Englander and early identified himself with the arduous work of the great lumber woods. As a young man he went to Wisconsin, became a timberman and was active in the lumber industry of that state for many years, his home the greater part of the time being in Monroe County. He was a republican in polities and a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Samuel Corliss died in Wisconsin in 1907. He married Mary Williams, who was born in England and died in Wisconsin in 1907. They became the parents of two sons, George and Charles. George is a railroad man living at Minneapolis.

Charles Corliss acquired a public school education in Monroe County, Wisconsin, but at the age of fifteen was earning his own way. For four years he was employed in sawmills and the lumber camps of Wisconsin. After that he took up the somewhat itinerant occupation of employ- ment on various public works, including bridge building. and this experience in time took him over practically all

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History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 3, Part 78

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