USA > West Virginia > Men of West Virginia Volume II > Part 31
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J. W. Beltz learned the trade of a cabinet-maker with Jerry Clemens and R. T. Friend. During the war he was in the quartermaster's department as a carpenter, and was located one year at Nashville. In 1867 the business of which he is now the head was estab- lished by him in connection with Jo- seph Salisbury and John Flading, as a planing mill. It was located on what is now the site of Benjamin Fisher's stove foundry, or the Wheeling Ware- house & Storage Company, and em- ployed about six men. The firm con- tinued until 1873, when Mr. Salisbury retired, and the firm name became Beltz & Flading. The concern was contin-
ued as a planing mill until 1885, when the present site was chosen and build- ings were erected. The plant occupies two and a half lots, and has a lumber yard adjoining. The company also owns three other lumber yards in the city, and does an immense business in this branch of their work. In addition to these, the company rents another lumber yard from a railroad company, and handles lumber of every grade and kind. The firm was incorporated as the J. W. Beltz & Sons Company in 1884, with J. W. Beltz as president, and John C. Paul, secretary and treas- urer. J. W. Beltz, Jr., Henry Beltz and Edward eBltz, sons of the subject hereof, are also connected with the business. Mr. Beltz has been a resi- dent of Wheeling since 1838, and is well and favorably known throughout the vicinity.
Mr. Beltz was united in marriage. with Virginia Grammer, who was also reared in Wheeling. Besides the three sons previously mentioned they have a daughter, Anna. Mr. Beltz resides in the Fifth Ward, has served two terms in the second branch of the City Coun- cil, and is a member of the Board of Trade. Fraternally, he is a member of the Arion Association and of the Carroll Club. Religiously he is a mem- ber of the Catholic Church.
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MEN OF WEST VIRGINIA
HON. LOUIS F. STIFEL, a prominent member of the legal profes- sion of Wheeling, is secretary of the Wheeling Title & Trust Company and is closely identified with many of the prosperous enterprises of the city. He was born in Wheeling in October, 1851, and is a son of C. E. Stifel, who for many years was a well known citi- zen of this city.
C. E. Stifel was born in Germany and there learned the trade of a tinner, working as a journeyman in different towns as far from home as Geneva, Switzerland. He removed to Wheel- ing. Virginia, now West Virginia, in 1836, and upon arriving worked for Squire Duly. After marriage he en- tered upon business for himself on Main street, near Ninth street, and manufactured tinware and house fur- nishings. He worked up a fine busi- nes and in 1870 took in his sons, W. C. and L. F., as partners, the firm name becoming C. E. Stifel & Sons, and as such is now conducted by his oldest son, W. C. Stifel. C. E. Stifel was known as the finest mechanic in his line, in using the hammer and in spinning copper and other metals into shape, work which is now done by machinery. He died in July, 1898, lacking but one month of being 84 years of age. In May, 1839.
he was united in marriage with Anna Clara Becht, who is still living at the age of 80 years, having come from Germany in 1835.
I.ouis F. Stifel continued as a mem- of the firm of C. E. Stifel & Sons until 1875, and then attended law lectures in the University of Michigan, at Ann Arbor, where he graduated in 1877. He was admitted to the bar and began the practice in the office of Henry M. Russell. He was elected to the State Legislature in 1882, and again in 1888, serving two terms. He is a Democrat, politically, although he has taken no active part in politics except as men- tioned. The partnership with Mr. Russell continued until Mr. Stifel took charge of the Wheeling Title & Trust Company, April 1, 1891. The com- pany was organized in January, 1890, the organizers being William P. Hub- bard, Henry M. Russell, George R. E. Gilchrist and Louis F. Stifel, and the idea being to do a regular title and trust business. Finding there was an insufficient title business, legislation was secured authorizing banking, and September 10, 1891, this branch of the business was started. The officers of the company are: Henry M. Russell, president ; Charles J. Rawling, vice- president ; Louis F. Stifel, secretary ; William H. Tracy, assistant secretary ;
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and George R. E. Gilchrist, examiner of titles. They have a property of 62 feet frontage on the west side of Main street, the building being partly oc- cupied by Nay Brothers' shoe store and Kraus Brothers' clothing house. The company has had a steady in- crease in business since its inception, and is one of the soundest banking in- stitutions of the State. The board of directors consists of the following sub- stantial business men : Henry M. Rus- sell; Charles J. Rawling: William P. Hubbard: John A. Hess; Charles F. Brandfass ; Charles Menkemeller ; Fred C. H. Schwertfeger; John S. Naylor ; H. F. Behrens; and Dr. Ackerman. Mr. Stifel is identified with several other business interests of the city, be- ing president of the Ohio Valley Drug Company, a director of the German Fire Insurance Company of Wheeling, the leading company of the State; and treasurer of the Home for the Aged, and the City Hospital.
Mr. Stifel was joined in matri- mony with a daughter of John Oester- ling, deceased, who was at one time president of the Central Glass Com- pany, which enterprise he built up. He was also president of the German Fire Insurance Company of Wheeling, and was a prominent business man of the city.
DR. R. O. McMASTER, one of the most prominent physicians and surgeons of Wheeling, West Virginia, is the proprietor of the McMaster Hospital at No. 1108 Chapline street, which he founded in 1886. It is an institution well known throughout this and adjoining States for its excel- lent facilities and the superiority of its medical attendants. Dr. McMas- ter was born near Jacobsburg, Bel- mont County, Ohio, and is a son of Robert McMaster. Robert McMaster, who is deceased, was a farmer by oc- cipation, although in early life he oc- cupied the Circuit Court bench for some years.
R. O. McMaster was primarily educated in Belmont County, Ohio, and then attended Starling Medical College, at Columbus, Ohio, from which he was graduated in 1875. He subsequently took a course in post- graduate work in Bellevue Hospital Medical College in New York City, and a three months' course in the Polyclinic Hospital in New York City. He first practiced in New Athens, Ohio, for five or six years, and located at Wheeling in the fall of 1883. He established a high-class practice, and in 1886 began keeping patients, which marked the inception of the McMaster Hospital. So suc-
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MEN OF WEST VIRGINIA
cessful was he that in 1892 he re- modeled the building and added to it, so that it has about 30 rooms and 20 patients can now be accommodated at one time. It is a private hospital, and excludes those having acute of in- fectious diseases. The Doctor has made a specialty of diseases of women, and in Wheeling is a pioneer in abdominal work, having operated suc- cessfully on 107 patients in 1900. It was the first private institution of this character established in the State, and it draws a high class of patients from all over West Virginia, and also from Western Pennsylvania and Eastern Ohio. All rooms have foul-air ducts, while fresh air is admitted so as to come in contact with the radiators, thus avoiding cool draughts, All rooms are well lighted and kept scrupulously clean, and the place is a model of convenience. The hospital possesses one of the finest operating rooms in the State, which is perfectly lighted from the sides and top and supplied with the latest improvements for sterilization. All clothing and the gloves worn by the physicians are sterilized before using, as well as the surgical instruments. A separate room. or closet with glass shelves, is provided for the many surgical in- struments used, and the supplies of
batting and bandages are kept in sealed packages. The water is boiled before using in operations. Pus, for- merly considered unavoidable, is elimi- nated by this process of sterilization in handling patients. Dr. McMaster is largely engaged in practice in diseases of the throat and nose, and although this is not a specialty he has considerable work along this line. His attention is mainly given to special- ties, notwithstanding he has quite an extensive general practice. He is a student of his profession, which he has thoroughly mastered, and has written several articles for different medical journals. He also invented a much needed surgical instrument, which is now largely in use.
Dr. McMaster was united in mar- riage with Ella M. Ault, a daughter of Thomas Ault, of Ohio, and their residence, which adjoins the hospital, is a very cozy and convenient home. They have two children: Mrs. Frank Armstrong, of Buffalo; and Thomas Austin, who is in the office of the National Steel Company, of Bellaire, Ohio. The Doctor is a member of the Ohio County Medical Society. He is a Mason, Knight Templar and Shriner. In his religious connections: he is a member of the First Presbyter- ian Church.
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MEN OF WEST VIRGINIA
NATHANIEL W. BALLAN- TYNE, secretary and treasurer of the West Virginia Fire Clay Manufactur- ing Company, at New Cumberland, Hancock County, was born in Pitts- burg, Pennsylvania, December 22, 1868, and is a son of Alex. and Irene (Freeman) Ballantyne.
The Ballantyne family was estab- lished in Pennsylvania by the grand- parents of our subject, who were Na- thaniel and Sarah (Wallace) Ballan- tyne, who were born and married in Scotland and came to America in 1836, on their wedding tour. They lived and died at Pittsburg, after rear- ing a family of 10 children. The old family home in Scotland was located near Paisley, and the grandmother was a descendant of the family of which the noted chieftain, William Wallace, was a member.
Alex. Ballantyne, the father of our subject. engaged in the glass business in Pittsburg. He died in 1885, aged 43 years. He married Irene Freeman, daughter of James L. and Priscilla (Gamble) Freeman, the former of whom was born in 1809, in Pittsburg, and at the age of 18 years removed to New Cumberland with his parents, Thomas and Elizabeth ( Black) Free- man.
Hancock County owes much to
Thomas and James L. Freeman for the development of one of the large and important industries of New Cumberland and vicinity. A foundry association in Pittsburg desired to find a certain kind of clay suitable for moulding into fire-brick and offered a prize to any one who would discover any bed of this kind within 100 miles of that city. Thomas Freeman, while boating along the river, made the dis- covery at the point known as Free- man's Landing, near the site of the present manufacturing plant. This discovery was made in 1829 and im- mediately capital came there and set- tlement began. Mr. Freeman built a small factory and began the manu -- facture of the brick, shipping to Pitts- burg and Cincinnati, the nearest town being Fairview, five miles in the inter- ior. Thomas Freeman reared a fam- ily of 10 children, the three survivors being: John, of Steubenville, Ohio; Jennie, of Pittsburg; and Mary, wife of Rev. John Truesdale, of Chicago. Thomas Freeman was a man of great business ability, recognizing before many others the possibilities of his section of the country. As early as 1850 he was engaged in a coal busi- ness, and with his son, James L., in- creased the fire-clay and brick business until they were the owners of three
23
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MEN OF WEST VIRGINIA
plants. They were the first manu- facturers of sewer pipe, manufacturing this necessity in 1860. Thomas Free- man died in 1857, at the age of 66 years, his widow surviving for a short time. James L. Freeman was engaged in the brick business on the river, op- posite New Cumberland, when his death occurred in 1892, at the age of 83 years. Mrs. Ballantyne was her parents' only child and was but a babe when her mother died, aged 19 years. The father never married again. Four children were born to the par- ents of our subject, namely : Virginia, wife of George B. Walmer, of Chi- cago; Nathaniel W .: J. F. and C. A., both in the brick and mercantile busi- ness with Nathaniel W.
From the grandfather's time the brick business was carried on as a partnership arrangement, but in 1903 it was incorporated with J. F. Ballan- tyne as president : Nathaniel W. as sec- retary and treasurer ; and C. A. Ballen- tyne as manager. The plant is located at Freeman's Landing, where both river and railroad facilities are at hand, and the output is clay and fire brick. They employ 40 men and the factory is well equipped with all kinds of modern labor-saving machinery. A ready market is fourd for their pro- ducts, the clay found in the vicinity
being peculiarly adapted to the man- ufacture of fire-brick. The brothers are all practical business men and carry on a large mercantile enterprise in con- nection with the manufacture of fire- brick, J. F. Ballantyne giving his at- tention to the mercantile branch.
Our subject has been so long con- nected with this business that he has few superiors in it. From childhood he has been familiar with it and is thoroughly conversant with every de- tail and every improvement in method. He is a member of the Knights of Pythias. The family belong to the Persbyterian Church.
CHARLES W. FRANZHEIM, a prominent citizen of Wheeling, West Virginia, is president of the Wheeling Pottery Company, the first pottery works established in the city, and is also president of the Riverside Pottery Company. Mr. Franzheim was born in Wheeling, in February, 1853, and is a son of George W. and Mary A. ( Hornung) Franzheim.
George W. Franzheim was born in 1824, at Waechtersbach, near Frank- fort, Germany, and in 1840 crossed the Atlantic to this country, locating in the city of Wheeling. He was one of the organizers of the First National
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Bank (now Bank of the Ohio Valley), also of the Franklin Insurance Com- pany of Wheeling, and a member of the City Council and Board of County Commissioners for many years. He served in the militia as major during the Civil War. He was united in marriage at Cincinnati, Ohio, with Mary A. Hornung, who was born at Allentown, Pennsylvania, of German parentage, and who now resides at Echo Point, a suburb of Wheeling. Six sons blessed this union: Charles W .: George W., Jr., deceased; Louis H., deceased; Albert A., contractor and ex-sheriff ; Henry C., a member of the firm of G. Mendel & Company; and Edward B., the well known archi- tect of Echo Point.
The Wheeling Pottery Company was organized and incorporated in 1879. and Charles W. Franzheim was one of the original stockholders and a member of the board of directors, which included : George K. Wheat, William A. Isett, Edward M. Pearson and D. J. McKee. Our subject has been an officer in the company since its inception and has served in the ca- pacity of president and general man- ager since the spring of 1893. The first buildings were on the corner of 3Ist and Chapline streets, where they are still operating eight kilns. The
plant at Woods and 3Ist streets, where the office is also located, was erected in 1889; and a higher grade of goods is there manufactured. The latter is also an eight-kiln factory, and both are built of brick. They employ some 450 men, including an office force of IO. They make a specialty of fine cameo china and ornamental ware, also a variety of ornamental art goods ranking favorably with the product of any other factory in the country. Mr. Franzheim, as president, is general manager and oversees all the work of the concern. He is also president and general manager of the Riverside Pottery Company, which was organ- ized and incorporated in April. 1899, under practically the same manage- ment and ownership. In addition to his duties in connection with the pot- teries, Mr. Franzheim is also vice- president of the German Bank of Wheeling, vice-president of the Frank- lin Fire Insurance Company of Wheel- ing, trustee of the Mutual Savings Bank, and president of the Vance Faience Company, which is located at Tiltonville and is exclusively engaged in the manufacture of art goods. Our subject graduated as a civil engineer in 1872, but has always been engaged in the pottery business. From 1889 until 1893 he was president and gen-
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eral manager of the Warwick China Company. He is a director of the Wheeling Board of Trade.
Mr. Franzheim was united in mar- riage in 1880 with Lyda H. Merts, of Ravenna, Ohio, she being a native of that State, and they have five children : C. Merts : George W .; Mary R. ; Cath- erine M. ; and H. Kenneth. Mr. Franzheim has a very fine home on the Island. In politics, he is a stanch Re- publican. He is one of the trustees of the First Presbyterian Church, and is a man whose home is his club and lodge.
MERIDETH J. SIMMS, a lead- ing citizen of Montgomery, Fayette County, West Virginia, president of the County Court, and a member of the business firm of Simms & Harmon. wholesale bottlers and ice manufact- urers, was born April 9, 1862, in Nich- olas County. He is a son of F. P. and Eliza (Simms) Simms, both natives of Fayette County, whose grand- fathers were cousins. the family being numerous on the Gauley River, where the great-grandfather, William Simms. settled when he migrated from East- ern Virginia. At that time the coun- try was wild and uncultivated, the in- habitants being only wandering In-
dian tribes and the savage beasts of the forest.
In 1895 the father of our subject, a son of William Simms, removed from Fayette County to Nicholas County. His wife is a daughter of Charles Simms, of the Gauley River country. They reared a family of nine children, all of whom survive and are counted among the valued citizens of that sec- tion.
Merideth J. Simms was reared in his native locality and attended the common schools. At the age of 21 he accepted a position as bookkeeper in a store and retained the position for about five years. He was only 25 years old when his prominence in the Republican party attracted attention, and he was appointed postmaster at Montgomery, by the late Presi- dent Benjamin Harrison. In 1892 Mr. Simms was elected a mem- ber of the Board of County Com- missioners, serving with so much efficiency that he secured the re- elected at the succeeding occasion. He has been prominently identified with political affairs in the county, was sent to Philadelphia as a delegate when Mckinley and Roosevelt were nominated, is a member of the Repub- lican Congressional Committee of his district and has not been absent from
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a county convention for years. At Philadelphia his prominence was rec- ognized by his appointment on the committee on rules and order of bus- iness. Since 1898 he has served as president of the County Court, mak- ing a very fine officer.
On July 5, 1886, Mr. Simms was united in marriage to Alwilda C. Ran- som, of St. Albans, and their children are named as follows : Forest E., Ira, Maud Merideth and Eugene.
COL. J. A. McGUFFIN, general manager of the Longdale Coal & Iron Company, at Sewell, West Virginia, and a prominent and influential citizen of Fayette County, was born in Jack- son County, Virginia, now West Vir- ginia, May 23, 1844. He is a son of Robert and Elizabeth (McCowan) McGuffin, the former of whom was born in Bath County, Virginia, and the latter in Pennsylvania
The McGuffin family was establish- ed in Virginia, immediately after the close of the Revolutionary War, by Robert McGuffin, a native of Scotland. His son, James McGuffin, was also born in Scotland, and served in the War of 1812 as a cavalryman. He was a man of wealth and social im- portance in Bath County, where his
whole after life was spent, and where he died during the Civil War.
Robert McGuffin, father of our sub- ject was a son of James McGuffin and his wife, Elizabeth Irwin, who was a daughter of Robert Irwin, also a Rev- olutionary soldier. He removed in young manhood from Bath into Jack- son County, this State, where he be- came a man of public importance and large means. He served as sheriff of Jackson County for two terms prior to 1850, and then moved to Mason County, locating on an estate eight miles above Point Pleasant, on the Kanawha River. His death occurred in 1858.
The mother of Colonel McGuffin was a daughter of John and Elizabeth (Stone) McCowan, the former of whom was a son of James McCowan, who served with the rank of captain under General Washington, and was a witness. of Braddock's defeat at Beech Bottom. John McCowan, the maternal grandfather of Colonel Mc- Guffin, was a captain in the War of 1812. The family records on both sides show that a military spirit has prevailed and many members have won distinction in that line. Our subject was the eldest of four children born to his parents, his two brothers and sister being as follows: Elizabeth, wife
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of Walter II. Hogg, now a resident of Mason County; Dr. Richard M., of Bramwell, Mercer County; and J. B., a coal operator on Luke Creek.
Colonel McGuffin was about six years old when his parents moved to Mason County, and his early educa- tion was obtained in the country schools. Later he attended Alleghany College, at Pittsburg. Pennsylvania, where he was graduated in 1861, in both the civil engineering and business courses. He was engaged in making military maps of Virginia for a time, and followed the profession of civil engineering for some ten years, and for a time served on the United States En- gineering Corps, on the coast survey service. In 1872 he removed to Fay- ette County in the interests of the Longdale Coal & Iron Company and did all of the prospecting for that cor- poration. Colonel McGuffin antedat- ed the building of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway through Fayette Coun- ty, and was the first shipper of coal over the road, shipping before the lines were completed to the West. At that time the railroad permitted ship- pers to load their cars with coal on the main lines. The road was opened June 23, 1873, and our subject shipped the first coke from the New River Val- ley, to the Longdale Coal & Iron Com-
pany's furnaces at Longdale, Virginia. The company for which Colonel Mc- Guffin so capably manages, operates a line of thirteen miles of railroad between Sewell and Cliff Top and has seven mines in operation which give employment to 1,000 people, while the main offices are situ- ated at Sewell.
Colonel McGuffin a man of fine administrative is ability and is interested in almost all of the leading coal, coke and iron en- terprises of the vicinity, and is prom- inent in other institutions. He is pres- ident of the Henry Coal & Coke Com- pany ; of the Dunloop Coal & Coke Company ; and of the Prudence Coal & Coke Company. He is also vice-presi- dent of the Citizens' National Bank at Charleston, West Virginia, and is sec- retary and treasurer of the Big Kana- wha Leasing Company, owning and operating some of the biggest silver mines in Colorado.
On June 17, 1873, Colonel Mc- Guffin was married to Maria Hogg, daughter of Col. James Hogg, of Ma- son County, a veteran of the Mexi- can War, the family being an old one in Virginia, of Scotch ancestry. The two children born to this union are: Olie, wife of Clarence Kirwin, of Baltimore, Maryland; and Lucy M., wife of John Gibson, of
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Richmond, Kentucky. His second marriage was to Nettie Sharp, a daughter of William Sharp, who was born at Saratoga, New York, but who is now a well known resident of Iron- ton, Ohio, aged 84 years. One little daughter of William Sharp, who was this marriage. Col. McGuffin is a Mason of high degree, a Knight Temp- lar, in which he is past commander of Kanawha Commandery, No. 4, of
Charleston, and a Shriner, being a member of the Beni-Kedem Temple; he is also a Scottish rite Mason of the 33rd degree. He was honored by be- ing selected as one of the judges at the World's Fair in Chicago, in 1893 and was one of the judges and had charge of the exhibit for the State of West Virginia at the celebration of the Ohio Valley Centennial at Cincinnati, in 1903.
INDEX.
PAGE
PAGE
A
Adams, George
575
Adams, G. W., M. D. 723
Adams, Isaac M. 109
Bell, Alfred W 334
Bell, David 497
Beltz, J. W. 756
Bennett, Hon. W. R. 707
Bernheim, Robert Benjamin. 480
Billings, Samuel O.
269
Bills, Robert E. III
Birtwell, Daniel T., M. D. 684
Armstrong, Jacob Vaught. 189
Blizzard, Hon. John W. 704
Armstrong, Hon. Virgil S. 254
Bodley, Jolın
665
Aschman, Gustavus A., M. D 89
Boger, C. M., M. D. 710
Boreman, Hon. Arthur I 65
Bowen, Jonathan P. 580
Bowen, William H 580
Bowman, Hon. Stuart Hampton.
193
Boyd, Hon. George E. 207
Bradley, James 432
Brady, W. S.
317
Brandfass, Charles F.
7.36
Bready, George R.
755
Brewster, C. D. 275
Brock, Allen 407
Brookfield, Capt. Rayner 517
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