History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 3, Part 93

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Mr. Willis was born on a farm in Harrison County, October 14, 1874, son of Henry Harrison and Prudence

J. (Martin) Willis. The farm where he was born was the scene of bis early youth, and his training in its duty was supplemented by a rural school education. He taught school in a rural district for three years, and then entered West Virginia University, where he took an elective course, including commercial subjeets. While at the university he paid some of his expenses by work with the West Virginia geological survey.

Since his university career his time and energies have been entirely devoted to banking. He was for a little more than two years an employe of the Buckhannon Bank at Buckhannon, for a year and a half was with the Traders National Bank of Buckhannon, for three years was cashier of the First National Bank at Parsons in Tucker County, for one year was cashier of the Peoples Bank of Philippi, and for about six months was assistant cashier of the Grafton Banking and Trust Company. He resigned from the latter bank in 1915 to become cashier of the Lumber- port Bank.

The Lumberport Bank was established in 1903, with an authorized capital of $25,000.00. This capital was increased to $50,000.00. The resources in March, 1922, stood at $385,422.94. Mr. Willis succeeded Vance L. Hornor as cashier. While Lumberport is situated in the midst of a splendid coal mining and agricultural district, it is the only bank in that section of Harrison County, and the serv- ice it has rendered has fully justified this practical control of the banking facilities. The bank has been well and conservatively managed, and is one of the strongest in- stitutions among the smaller towns of West Virginia.

Mr. Willis has had due regard for the obligations of citizenship. He is now serving as president of the Board of Education for the Eagle School Distriet. He is a re- publican and a member of the Baptist Church.

In his career as a banker he has had a splendid as- sociate in Mrs. Willis, who is a trained and capable busi- ness woman and assists him as assistant cashier of the Lumberport Bank. They were married in 1906. Mrs. Willis was formerly Miss Elizabeth Whitescarer. She is a gradu- ate of West Virginia University in the school of commerce and bookkeeping, and for nine years she remained as an instruetor in that department. She is also an active member of the Baptist Church. Mr. and Mrs. Willis are proud of their two daughters, Mildred and Hazel, both of whom have shown talent in music, Mildred, being a pianist and Hazel a vocalist.

LEWIS J. MILLER, formerly general manager of the Wheeling Wholesale Grocery Company, stands as one of the veteran and representative figures in the wholesale trade of Wheeling, in which city he was born August 25, 1858, a son of Peter Miller, who was one of the sterling pioneer merchants of this eity. Peter Miller was born in the Fulda River District of Hessen, Germany, November 1, 1832, a son of John and Anna Maria Miller, he having been a youth at the time of the father's death, but the widowed mother having attained to the venerable age of eighty-eight years. Peter Miller was reared and educated in his native land and was about nineteen years of age when he came to the United States. In 1852 he estab- lished his bome at Wheeling, and here he served a three years' apprenticeship in the tailoring establishment of Christian Hesse, working the first year for $10 a year and his board, the second year receiving $20 and board and a! suit of elothes. In the third year he became a skilled journeyman at his trade. In 1860 he engaged in the retail grocery business at the corner of Main and Third streets, where he continued operations five years, the brick bloek which he erected at this location still standing and in ex- cellent preservation. He continued for many years as one of the substantial, reliable and highly respected business men of Wheeling, and through his well directed endeavors accumulated an appreciable fortune, as gauged by the standards of the locality and period. He was eighty-one years of age at the time of his death, and his widow passed away at the age of eighty-three years, their mar- riage having been solemnized November 1, 1857. Mrs. Miller, whose maiden name was Christina Heil, was born

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children five are living: Flora, wife of John Prince, a farmer in Braxton County; Albert A., a minister of the United Brethren Church; Iverson W .; Alvin M., a farmer in Upshur County; and Lester W., in a business college in the State of Washington.

Iverson W. Crites spent the days of his youth on a farm, attended the common schools, and began working for himself and earning his own living when he was fifteen. He had made every possible use of his advantages while in school, qualified as a teacher and for six years taught winter terms of school. The summers he spent working in lumber camps and around the saw mills, and when he gave up the teaching profession he turned his complete energies to the lumber industry. Mr. Crites in 1917 ae- quired stock in the Hope Lumber Company. This is an incorporated company with A. O. Harper as president and manager, S. F. White, vice president, J. A. Genderson, treasurer, and I. W. Crites secretary. Mr. Crites is also a stockholder in the Arch Run Lumber Company.

During the World war he enlisted and was trained at Richmond, Virginia, later at Camp Forrest in Georgia, and went overseas with the Four Hundred and Sixty-seventh Engineers. He. was on duty in France five months and was a sergeant. He is a member of Weston Post of the Amer- iran Legion. Mr. Crites is unmarried, is affiliated with the Knights of Pythias and Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and in polities votes as a republican.

CLAUDE W. RINEHART is a successful business man of Weston, where for many years he has devoted his best energies to the lumber business. He is one of the pro- prietors and executive officers of the Central Lumber Company.

Mr. Rinehart was born in Lewis County, West Virginia, August 24, 1885, son of William and Sarah (White) Rine- hart. His parents were also born and reared in Lewis County, grew up on farms, attended the common schools. and after their marriage settled on the farm where the father spent the rest of his life. He was progressive and industrious and accumulated a body of 200 acres of first-class farming land. The mother is still living. They were active members of the Methodist Protestant Church, and William Rinehart was a democrat. Of their large family of eleven children ten are still living: Statira, wife of Charles E. Lamb, of Coolville Ohio; John A., con- nected with the Parkersburg Mattress Company; Lloyd of Weston; Theo, a farmer in Lewis County; Jesse M., a contractor and builder at Weston; Elza A., cashier of the Farmers Bank of Clarksburg, West Virginia; Dr. L. G., a dentist in Oklahoma; Claude W .; Laura, wife of W. A. Moneypenny, of Lewis County; and Lona, wife of Oscar Bailey, of Gilmer County.

Claude W. Rinehart grew up on a farm, attended the common schools with his brothers and sisters and later graduated from the Mountain State Business College at Parkersburg. As a boy on the farm he determined to enter a commercial career. After his college course he spent two years as clerk with the E. J. Kane Hardware Company. He then transferred his abilities to the lumber business and for fifteen years was secretary and treasurer of the Sun Lumber Company. In 1919 he took an active part in the organization of the Central Lumber Company, and is the executive head of this corporation.

Mr. Rinehart married Miss Effie A. Atkins, of Weston, October 16, 1912. She was reared and educated in Harri- son County, West Virginia. They have a daughter, Mary Louise, born October 6, 1917. Mr. and Mrs. Rinehart are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. He is a democrat and is prominent in Masonry, being affiliated with Weston Lodge, No. 10, A. F. & A. M., Bigelow Chapter, No. 4, R. A. M., St. John Commandery, No. 8, K. T., West Virginia Consistory, No. 1, at Wheeling, and Nemesis Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Parkersburg. In the local branches of the order he is a past master, past high priest and past eminent commander.

GEZA KOKOCHAK. The United States, where total democracy is supposed to reign and where no lines of

distinction are drawn other than those of relative, proved ability, have long attracted the ambitious youths of other countries. In making their home here they find their dreams of earnest labor well repaid come true and their immigration is of mutual advantage. A fair example of the case in hand is found in Geza Kokochak, who has risen to be a leading business man of Weirton, where he is part owner of the Leader-News and proprietor of a flourishing real estate business.

Mr. Kokochak was born May 16, 1885, in Czecho-Slo- vakia, then Hungary. When he was ten years of age he was left in his native land by his parents, who in 1895 immigrated to the United States and settled in Jefferson County, Ohio, not having sufficient means to take their children with them. When he was only five years of age Geza began earning a part of his living as a goose herder, and continued until, when seven years of age, he had charge of 500 geese on a nobleman's estate, likewise being overseer swineherd for the village. Later he was made a shepherd and tended the village sheep, amounting to 1,300. Up to this time he received no wages, working merely for his board, but eventually he secured a position with a lumber company, where, in the mill, he was made foreman of a bunch of twenty-five boys engaged in sorting lath, and this employment paid him a small wage. His school- ing, starting at seven years, consumed two and one-half years, whereas the usual course was six years, but he was called upon to attend the examinations. During his resi- denee in his native land Mr. Kokochak lived with an' aunt, who was interested in his advancement, and finally ar- rangements were made, in 1897, for him to join his par- ents, and in December of that year the family was reunited. Geza secured work in the coal mines of Jeffer- son County, where he remained three years, but it was his desire to enter business on his own account, and in order to prepare for a mercantile career he secured employment as a elerk, a vocation which he followed for three and one- half years. Mr. Kokochak made his initial venture into the merchandise business at Connorville, Ohio, in partner- ship with his father, Michael Kokochak, who is now de- ceased, but lost all his capital on account of a coal strike then existing.

It was at this time that Mr. Kokochak married Miss Susannah Swartz, who had been born in the same vicinity in Czecho-Slovakia as her husband, and had been brought as a child to Steubenville, Ohio, by her father, Andy Swartz, formerly foreman at the old LaBelle mines, and now living in retirement at Steubenville. After their mar- riage Mr. and Mrs. Kokochak settled at Steubenville, where they embarked in the general store business, with $6 cash and a $3,500 debt to pay. During the seven years that they engaged in business at Steubenville they built up an enterprise of $3,000 sales the first year to $100,000 sales the seventh year and paid off all debts. During this time also Mr. Kokochak had been identified with all move- ments and was a leader among his people. In 1913 he opened a branch of his business at Weirton, then a village of 800 population, with but one mill in operation. Mr. Kokochak put in a general stock of merchandise and was soon doing a thriving business. He had the foresight to note how Weirton was to grow and develop, and, where a man of less courage and self-reliance would have hesitated, was prompt in disposing of his Steubenville business in order that he might concentrate his full energies upon the new enterprise. His judgment was also shown in the choice of a location for his store, for when the community grew up and developed it was found that his store was located within a mile of the center of the city. For a time it would seem that his foresight had been at fault, as his store lost some money, but his business ability soon over- came this obstacle and he made the mercantile effort a decided success.

At this time there was somewhat of a boom on in real estate, and Mr. Kokochak, a man of known acumen, was frequently consulted as to property values. This opened up a new field for his capabilities, and he soon was en- gaged in the real estate business as the medium through which could be transacted transfers of property. His in-

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terests in this direction soon grew to such an extent that he disposed of his store and purchased a real estate agency from a Mr. Widing. With the growth of the town he began to handle all kinds of property, and his deals grew larger and larger, until at one time and another he has probably sold as much property as there is in Weirton at present, one of his deals involving the transfer of 340 acres of property, which extended the corporate limits greatly. He became a salesman and also a stockholder for the Weirton Home Building Company, which sells many homes, and the Weirton New Home Building Company, and acts as salesman for the Weirton New Home Company, owned by the Weirton Steel Company, the leading industry of the community. Mr. Kokochak has interested many new people in the community and has encouraged them to build and settle, and is the man in charge of the some eighteen or twenty additions to the growing community of Weirton, which during the past few years has shown an almost phenomenal development.

Mr. Kokochak first entered the newspaper field in 1920, when he purchased the Weirton Leader from James J. Weir. On Mr. Weir's return from the West he secured a half interest in the Leader, and December 1, 1921, Messrs. Weir and Kokochak bought the Weirton News from J. W. Jones, who had purchased it in 1920 from Mr. Weir, its founder. The two papers were thus combined as the Leader-News, Mr. Weir being editor and manager and Mr. Kokochak, treasurer. Mr. Kokochak is also president of the Weirton Business Men's Association. He has always been one of the town's best boosters, and has at all times been ready to help progressive movements with his ability, his time or his means. During the World war he was greatly active, par- ticularly in the Red Cross, where he was a member of the executive board, although he likewise did his full share in other movements, being a member of all committees of Liberty Bond drives and an assistant to the members of the War Registration Board, in addition to working valiantly in behalf of the Young Men's Christian Association and other drives. Largely through his work and that of other public-spirited citizens like himself Hancock County was among the first in every drive. He was appointed by the director of War Risk Insurance to assist the Government in gathering the necessary data to reinstate the service men in retaining their Government insurance. When the Red Cross first installed its local branch Mr. Kokochak gave them the use of his offices free until the society had an opportunity of erecting a building of their own. Mr. Koko- chak is particularly well read in all Slavonic tongues, and while a resident of Steubenville was frequently called into the courts to act as an interpreter. He is the owner of a modern home at Weirton, in which he has a well-selected library of some 5.000 volumes. Taking a pride in his adopted city and its institutions, he has helped to build up all the churches, and not only aids all educational move- ments, but is a regular visitor at the schools.

Mr. and Mrs. Kokochak are the parents of seven children, as follows: Anna, who is attending the local high school; Napoleon John, attending the graded school; Geza C., Alex- ander Ferdinand, Olympia Josephine, Theodore Woodrow and Lillian Susannah. Anna and Napoleon were the first junior members of the Red Cross in Hancock County, in the first branch, and the first chapter in Hancock County was established at Weirton.

CARL EDWARD GUSTKEY. It can properly be said that Carl Edward Gustkey was the architect of his own early destinies as well as his mature career. He became a worker when a mere hoy, and his work proved a training school in which he has developed his successful career as a merchant and he has been a business man of inde- pendence in Preston County during the greater part of his life.

He was born in Newburg, April 17, 1880. His grand- father, Edward Gustkey, brought his family in company with a party of immigrants from Hanover, Germany, the party being delivered near Hardman, West Virginia, under contract to work for Mr. Hardman in getting out iron ore. This work was the first employment of Edward

Gustkey in the United States. After five or ten years he moved to Pittsburgh, where his sons became employes of the steel mills, and he then returned to West Virginia, settled at Newburg, and finally at Independence, where he spent his last years in cultivating a small plot of ground. He died in 1889, at the age of seventy-six. His children were: Anna, who married August Shrader and is now living at Independence at the age of seventy-two; William, now deceased, spent a greater part of his life at Pitts- hurgh, and several of his sons became men of prominence in railroad circles.

Carl Edward Gustkey, Sr., was born in Hanover and was thirteen years of age when brought to the United States. He acquired a limited education, but sufficient to transact the affairs of life. As a young man he entered the service of the Baltimore & Ohio Railway Company as a laborer on a repair gang. Later he became an engineer at the Edgar Thompson Steel Mills, and while operating a locomotive in the Edgar Thompson plant of the Beth- lehem Steel Company near Braddock, Pennsylvania, he was accidentally killed on August 4, 1889, at the age of thirty- four. At Independence, West Virginia, he married Eliza- beth Avers, who was born at Terra Alta in 1854. Her parents were John H. and Yetta Avers. John Avers, a native of Holland, was a farmer in Germany, and brought his family to the United States, arriving in very straight- ened circumstances financially. After purchasing a cow he had only seven dollars left. At Terra Alta he began with a small parcel of ground and farmed it. Later he moved to Independence, West Virginia, and entered the railroad employ, and after many years of service in the Newburg, West Virginia, shops of the Baltimore & Ohio he retired. He died at Independence at the age of eighty- eight. He had a large family, and some of his sons be- came prominent in railroad circles.

The children of Carl E. Gustkey, Sr., and wife who lived to maturity were: Carl E., now of Independence, West Virginia; Anna, who married Thomas Gough, now of Blaine, West Virginia, and Harry Wilson, now of Detroit, Michigan.

Carl Edward Gustkey, Jr., was only nine years of age when his father died. He had the privilege of attending only seven terms of public schools. At the age of four- teen he became an employe in the store of W. E. Sharp & Company, at Independence, West Virginia, at $12.00 per month. Later he worked for Mr. Sharps alone, then for his successors, Hartley & Metzler, and finally, in 1904, bought the interest of Mr. Metzler, this transaction re- sulting in the change of the firm name to Hartley & Gust- key. This his first partnership, was with J. M. Hartley, now of Fairmont, West Virginia, and a pioneer merchant of West Virginia. The firm is still doing business pros- perously and with a large establishment occupying the site of the first store established in the Village of Inde- pendence before the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad was built. Mr. Gustkey is working with undiminished energy and with the efficiency acquired by many years of experience as a merchant, and gives practically all his time to the store, although he has had some capital invested in a small way in coal mines. He is a director of the First National Bank of Newburg, and has also served Lyon District three years as a member of the Board of Education.

Mr. Gustkey was reared in a home where the politics was democratic. but he cast his first presidential vote for Colonel Roosevelt in 1904 and has supported the republican ticket in national elections ever since. He is affiliated with Newburg Lodge of Masons, the Royal Arch Chapter and Knights Templar Commandery at Grafton, the Mystic Shrine at Wheeling. is a past chancellor of Damon Lodge. No. 5 Knights of Pythias, at Newburg, is a past grand of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows at Independence, and is a member of Grafton Lodge, No. 638, Loval Order of Moose. While a member of the Lutheran Church. he is also active in the interests of the Methodist Protestant Church.

At Independence. June 14, 1906. Mr. Gustkey married Daisy Lenore Wilkins. who was born at Independence, Angust 14, 1880, only four months younger than her hus-

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band. Her parents were Isaac and Elizabeth (Helmick) Wilkins, early settlers of Preston County, and her maternal grandfather, Helmick, was a pioneer circuit rider of the Methodist Protestant Church, covering Preston, Taylor and nearby counties, and spent the greater part of his life near the Village of Independence. Mrs. Gustkey was the young- est of four children. The others are: Inez, a teacher in the Grafton public schools; Mrs. May Gibson, of Newburg; and Arthur, a successful architect at Pittsburgh. Mr. and Mrs. Gustkey have two sons, Carl Wilkins, born in 1908, and Earl, born in 1911.

THOMAS JEFFREY DAVIS, prosecuting attorney of Ritchie County, with residence at Harrisville, the county seat, was born in this county March 19, 1879, and is a scion of an old and honored family of what is now West Virginia, a family that was founded in America in the early colonial era. The genealogy of the Davis family has fortunately been preserved in careful record, from which the following data are drawn:

William Davis was born in Glamorganshire, Wales, in 1663, and was educated at Oxford University, his parents wishing him to become a clergyman. At the university he became interested in the teachings of the Society of Friends, which he joined, and in which he became a speaker.

In 1684 he came to America with others of this faith to join the colony of William Penn. In 1698 he became a member of the Seventh Day Baptist Church in Penn- sylvania. He first married Elizabeth Brisley, and after her death wedded Elizabeth Pavior. Four children were horn of the first and seven of the second marriage. Several of the children became members of a Seventh Day Baptist colony at Monmouth, New Jersey, about 1740, and with these children William Davis passed the closing years of his life. He died in 1745, aged eighty-two years. Rep- resentatives of the family were prominent members of the old Baptist Church at Shrewsbury, New Jersey. Rev. Jacob Davis enlisted as a chaplain in the Patriot Army of the Revolution, and his father, James, Sr., was killed hy a stray bullet while in service as a soldier in that war. William Davis, Jr., served on the staff of Gen. George Washington. William Davis, Jr., and his family hecame members of the colony from the old Shrewsbury Church that came to Virginia in 1789, the immigrants, who came with a train of fifteen wagons, making settlement on White Day Creek in what is now Monongalia County, West Vir- ginia. James Davis, son of William, Jr., was sixteen years old at the time of this migration to the wilds of Virginia. His son David married Lydia Jeffrey, and they hecame the parents of ten children, of whom the fifth was Thomas Neely Davis. who was born in 1824 and who mar- ried Amelia Zinn. Thomas Engle Davis, son of Thomas N. and Amelia (Zinn) Davis, was born July 11, 1846, at Oxford, Ritchie County, West Virginia, as now constituted. December 24, 1868, Thomas E. Davis wedded Alethea Anna Leggett, and they became the parents of four children: Winifred married Homer B. Woods, September 10, 1890, and they became the parents of seven children, of whom two are deceased; Juniata Davis married Wheeler Boggess, June 23, 1892, and her death occurred February 20, 1920, she being survived by six children; Thomas Jeffrey, the immediate subject of this review, was the next in order of hirth; and Dada died in infancy.

Thomas Engle Davis attended historic old Washington and Jefferson University at Washington, Pennsylvania, and he had the distinction of being the teacher of the first public school established in Ritchie County. He be- came one of the leading members of the bar of Ritchie County, which he served two terms as prosecuting attorney, besides which he served in earlier years as deputy sheriff and deputy county and circuit clerk. He was a man of fine intellectuality and marked professional ability, was a leader in public affairs in his native county, and rep- resented his district in the State Legislature. He was a stalwart advocate of the principles of the republican party, was affiliated with the Masonic fraternity, and was a zealous member of the Baptist Church, as was also his widow, who died January 7, 1915, at Harrisville. Brief

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History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 3, Part 93

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