USA > West Virginia > Prominent men of West Virginia: biographical sketches, the growth and advancement of the state, a compendium of returns of every election, a record of every state officer; > Part 54
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730
PROMINENT MEN OF
HON. B. S. MORGAN.
731
WEST VIRGINIA.
BENJAMIN STEPHENS MORGAN.
T HE present State Superintendent of Free Schools for West Virginia was born near Rivesville, Marion county, Vir- ginia, March 11, 1854. He is the lineal descendant of David Morgan, who, with his brother, made a pioneer settlement on the tract of land upon which is built the town of Morgantown, the location of the State University. He is the second son of Smallwood G. Morgan, a farmer, and was educated in the com- mon schools, then at the age of sixteen he began teaching as a means of further progress. In the spring of 1873 he went West and taught in a High School at Elm Spring, Arkansas. In 1874 he returned to Monongalia county, West Virginia, and entered the State University, graduating therefrom in the classical and military courses in 1878. In that year he was elected Principal of the Public Schools of Morgantown and served till May, 1881, when he was elected County Superintendent of Free Schools for Monongalia, and in 1883 re- elected to the same office. In 1885 he resigned to enter upon the duties of State Superintend- ent of Free Schools, to which office he had been nominated by the Democratic party and elected in the fall of 1884. He was re-elected in 1888. In both elections he led the entire State ticket in number of votes, thus evidencing his popularity. In 1882 he was admitted to the Bar, and in 1883 he graduated from the law school of his Alma Mater.
Professor Morgan was married February 27, 1889, to Annie, daughter of the late John Thoburn, of Wheeling, Ohio county.
In January, 1885, he revived and began republication of the West Virginia School Journal, a monthly which had been founded by his predecessor, Hon. Bernard L. Butcher, and which had, in November, 1884, been suspended. Under his editorial supervision this journal, devoted to education in our State, has been improved and made exceedingly useful to teachers and educators in every county. Through its columns, as well as in the discharge of his official duties, he has striven to create a unification of school work in West Virginia. It has been his pride that there should be organic connection and sin- cere co-operation beginning with the public schools, through the Graded and Normals up to the University. During his ad- ministration the Normal schools have increased in attendance and efficiency. He has been diligent and successful in urging
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PROMINENT MEN OF
valuable school legislation, among other laws one providing for the granting of teachers' State certificates, making a diploma from the State Normal schools equivalent to a State certificate. Professor Morgan is a practical teacher, a successful school superintendent, a classical writer, and is the author of the first graded course of study for district schools in this State.
WILLIAM RYLAND WHITE.
N LOW in his three score and ten advancement towards a higher home, with almost half a century as prophet in the pulpit and teacher in the school, Dr. White has gathered many precious sheaves for his Master. He was born in Georgetown, D. C., November 26, 1820, and has been a resident of this State thirty-three years. He graduated at Dickinson College, Penn- sylvania, in 1841; entered Baltimore Conference in 1844; was Principal of Olin and Preston Institute, Blacksburg, Virginia, from 1852 to 1855; Principal of the West Virginia Conference Seminary at Fairmont from 1856 to 1863. He was the first State Superintendent of Public Instruction of West Virginia in 1864 to 1869; President State Normal School at Fairmont 1869 to '70. He was stationed at Morgantown in 1876, at Fairmont in 1877, Wheeling (Chapline Street) in 1878-'79 ; Presiding Elder Buck- hannon District 1879 to 1883; stationed at Fairmont in 1884, and again at Morgantown in 1886-'89. He has reaped con- stantly in the ripe harvest since he was twenty-four years of age. He is a ripe scholar and an able preacher. In 1886 Allegheny College honored itself by conferring upon Mr. White the degree of Doctor in Divinity.
733
WEST VIRGINIA.
LITTLE.
REV. W. R. WHITE, A.M., D.D.
734
PROMINENT MEN OF
SEPTIMIUS HALL.
S EPTIMIUS HALL was born February 14, 1847, in Ritchie county, Virginia. His father, Leonard S. Hall, was a law- yer and removed to Wetzel county when the boy was about one year old. The father was a member from Wetzel county of the Virginia Constitutional Convention held at Richmond in 1861, known as the "Secession Convention." In 1871 Septimius Hall was elected to represent Wetzel county in the Constitutional Convention of 1872, and was the youngest member of the body ; was a member of the Committee on the Executive Department in said Convention. In August, 1872, at the time the present Constitution was adopted, he was elected to the State Senate to represent the Second Senatorial District, composed of the coun- ties of Marshall, Marion and Wetzel, and was also the youngest but one of that body. In the allotment he drew the short term and served in the Senate two years. While a member of the Senate he was chairman of the Committee on Banks and Cor- porations.
In 1880 he was elected to represent Wetzel county in the House of Delegates for 1881 and 1882, and in that body was chairman of the special committee on Railroads. In 1882 he was again elected to represent Wetzel county in the House of Delegates for 1883 and 1884, and was chairman of the Committee on Taxation and Finance. In 1873 and 1874 Mr. Hall served as a member of the Board of Directors of the Hospital for the Insane at Weston. He studied law with his father but never practiced. In October, 1873, together with some gentlemen of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, he organized the Pittsburgh Stave Company, which did a large and extensive business in staves and cooperage, until February, 1884, when it was disbanded. The plant was located at New Martinsville, and Mr. Hall was one of its general managers. In 1877 he became a member of the mercantile firm of Oxnard, Hall & Co., located at New Mar- tinsville, which firm continued to do business until 1882, when it closed operations. In June, 1885, he was appointed Deputy Collector of Internal Revenue, in charge of the First or Wheel- ing Division, composed of the counties of Hancock, Brooke, Ohio, Marshall, Wetzel and Tyler, it being the most important division of the State, and continued in that office throughout the term to 1889, when the National administration changed.
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WEST VIRGINIA.
In 1883 he became a member of the Board of Directors of the Ohio River Railroad Company, and continued to serve in that capacity until May, 1888.
Mr. Hall has been a resident of Virginia and West Virginia all his life, mostly in Wetzel county, and has long been well and favorably known as one of the enterprising public men of the two States.
ERWIN DAVID JAY BOND.
N TEAR Parkersburg, upon the Little Kanawha river, in Wood county, Virginia, April 6, 1834, was born Dr. Bond, one of the State Senators in the Legislature of 1887. He was pri- marily educated in the common schools, then, in 1854, he at- tended the Linsly Institute of Wheeling, and afterwards the Northwestern Academy in West Union, Ohio. In 1856-7 he attended lectures in the Medical College of Cincinnati, and sub- sequently regular courses in other similar institutions. He began medical practice at Matamoras, Ohio, and in 1860 removed to Clarksburg, Virginia. In 1864, be became assistant surgeon of the Eleventh Regiment West Virginia Volunteer Infantry and served till the close of the war, in the meantime receiving promotion to the position of surgeon. When the war ended he located at Davisville, Wood county, West Virginia. He was President of the Board of Education in that district for ten years. In the House of Delegates, sessions of 1882-3, he was a member from Wood county, and served his constituency, faith- fully. They urged his promotion to the State Senate, and with the Republican voters of the other counties of the district, elected him for the term 1885 and 1887. In the latter year he served upon the Committees of Education, Counties and Municipal Corporations, Federal Relations, and Public Library. He de- clined a re-nomination in 1888. In October of that year he removed to Parkersburg, where he practices his profession, and is one of the Board of U. S. Pension Examiners.
736
PROMINENT MEN OF
HON. A. M. POUNDSTONE.
737
WEST VIRGINIA.
ALEXANDER M. POUNDSTONE.
N the waters of George's creek, in Fayette county, Penn- sylvania, February 26, 1835, was born the Upshur county attorney whose name heads this sketch. His father, Colonel Richard Poundstone, was an active and prosperous business man in that county and died in 1854. His mother died when he was only three years old. She was a daughter of Captain James A. McClelland, who commanded a company of dragoons in the war of 1812, and for several years represented Fayette county in the Pennsylvania Legislature. Alexander M. Poundstone at the age af seventeen went one term to Dunlap's Creek Academy, then attended Greene Academy at Carmichael's for a number of years, and next entered Allegheny College at Meadville. He studied law in the office of his uncle at New Lexington, in the State of Ohio. Soon after the commencement of the war of the rebellion he enlisted in the volunteer service of the United States and continued therein for about three and a half years. He entered the service in October, 1861, in the Sixty-second Ohio Volunteer Infantry, serving therein as Second and First Lieu- tenants and Captain. Participated with his regiment in the battle of Winchester, March 23d, 1862, and in the hard marches and frequent skirmishes in the campaign of Shield's Division against Stonewall Jackson. Also took part with his regiment in frequent encounters with the enemy on the Blackwater river, in Virginia. In the winter of 1862 he was honorably discharged from the Sixty-second Ohio regiment and was soon thereafter appointed by President Lincoln, Captain in the Fifth United States Colored Infantry, raised and organized in the State of Ohio; marched therewith to the assistance of General Kilpat- rick, in his raid on Richmond; was in the engagements of Bay- lor's Farm and Petersburg Heights, June 15th, 1864, and in the battle on north side James river, September 29th, 1864, which resulted in the capture of New Market Heights and Fort Har- rison; in the movement under General Terry on Fort Fisher, North Carolina, which resulted in its capture, January 15th, 1865. He received promotion to the rank of Major by brevet for gallant and meritorious services during the war.
Upon the return of peace Captain Poundstone again took up the profession of law and located in Buckhannon, West Vir- ginia. He soon won his way into a successful practice and was 51
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PROMINENT MEN OF
elected and re-elected and served for fourteen years as Prosecut- ing Attorney for the county of his adoption. His earnestness, candor and ability pointed him out to a majority of the citizens of his county as one suitable to be clothed with law-making power, and he was elected and served as a member of the House of Delegates in 1872. In 1879 he was again sent as a member of the House of Delegates and in that session served on the following Committees: Taxation and Finance; Joint Commit- tee on the Amendment of Article 8 of the State Constitution, and on Enrolled Bills.
In political adherence he is a Republican and has frequently been placed in the leadership of his party organization in Up- shur. In 1880 he was the Republican candidate for Presidential Elector from the Second District of West Virginia.
In the campaign of 1888 he was an independent candidate for Judge of the Circuit composed of the counties of Upshur, Lewis, Braxton, Nicholas and Webster, but was defeated by Hon. W. G. Bennett of Weston, the regular nominee of the Democratic party, which was largely in the ascendrncy in said circuit.
Captain Poundstone married a daughter of James McCor- mick in Fayette county, Pennsylvania. They have three chil- dren, two daughters, May and Annie, and a son, Homer C., who is an ensign in the United States navy.
EUGENE GARRETT JEFFERYS.
€ G. JEFFERYS was born near Tunnelton, Preston county, Virginia, June 11, 1848. He attended the common schools of the neighborhood in winter and the rest of each year labored on his father's farm until fifteen years old, when he removed to Kingwood. He graduated at the Academy there; was a clerk in the store of Hon. James C. McGrew; and afterwards taught school. He removed to Grafton in 1870 and served as clerk in Internal Revenue Collector G. W. Brown's office and was con- nected with this service under Collectors Pierpoint and Duval until 1885, when he engaged in newspaper and mercantile pur- suits. He so continued until June, 1889, when he was appointed Superintendent of the Stamp Vault, under Internal Revenue Commissioner Mason, at Washington, in which responsible po- sition he is now serving.
739
WEST VIRGINIA.
HENRY A. YEAGER.
N TOVEMBER 16, 1844, upon a farm, in the county of Poca- hontas, Virginia, was born this member of the House of Delegates of the session of 1887. As indicated by the name, he is of German descent. He received the advantages of a limited common school education. During the war he was a private in the Thirty-first Virginia regiment under "Stonewall" Jackson, in the Ewell Division of General Early's Brigade. He was wounded in the battle of Spottsylvania C. H. on the 12th of May, 1864; was taken as a prisoner at Fort Stedman, March 25, 1865, and was released from prison June 17, 1865. After the war he returned to his home near Greenbank, West Virginia, where he still pursues his favorite avocation of stock raising. He is in politics a Democrat, and as a delegate from the Fourth District, of Webster and Pocahontas, was elected to the House of 1883 and again of 1887. In the latter session he was upon the Com- mittees of Elections and Privileges, Private Corporations and Joint Stock Companies, chairman of Roads and Internal Nav- igation, and Railroads. During his service in the Legislature he made no attempt at display, but was noted for careful inves- tigation of all subjects brought before the Legislature and for diligent work in committees. He was appointed Special Timber Agent, General Land Office, November 29, 1888, and is stationed at Cheyenne, Wyoming Territory. He married Bertie Beard, of Greenbrier county, November 7, 1865.
JAMES ALEXANDER BROWN.
J AMES A. BROWN, one of the able attorneys of King- wood, Preston county, and son of Thomas Brown, was born June 11, 1836. He was educated liberally, graduated at Washington College, Pennsylvania, and subsequently attended the University of Virginia. He read law with his father and the Hon. John A. Dille, and was admitted to the Bar in 1859; was elected Prosecuting Attorney of Preston county, and filled the office with general satisfaction from 1861 to 1863. In 1880 he was chosen as the Republican candidate for Judge of the Third Circuit, receiving a flattering majority in his own, but was defeated by the Democratic majorities of the other counties. He is in the prime of life, and has a future of promise.
740
PROMINENT MEN OF
W. T. W. BARBE, A.M.
741
WEST VIRGINIA.
WAITMAN T. WILLEY BARBE.
W. T. W. BARBE was born November 19, 1863, in a farm house, near the "Athens of West Virginia," in Monon- galia county, whither his parents had migrated from the Shenan- doah Valley. At the early age of twenty-six, Mr. Barbe has so well acted his part in the drama of life as to entitle his name to a place on the roll of Prominent Men of West Virginia.
Energy and ability have characterized all his work. In the public schools of his native county; in the West Virginia Uni- versity, whence he graduated in 1884; in journalism, his voca- tion continuously since that time; and in literary work, his favorite avocation.
After taking his baccalaureate degree, Mr. Barbe was engaged for a time on the staff of the New Dominion, at Morgantown, and the result was a marked advance in the tone and influence of the paper. Then two years were spent in reportorial work in Cincinnati, where the culture of the best society, access to the best theaters, operas, and lecture courses, and association with literary and artistic friends, added to his literary stock in trade much useful material, which he brings into requisition in his present (1889) duties as Managing Editor of the Parkersburg daily and weekly State Journal, and as Literary Editor of the West Virginia School Journal.
In Parkersburg Mr. Barbe has shown himself not only a man of promise as an editor and poet, but has made himself felt as an important factor in the city, socially, intellectually, and po- litically ; while to the West Virginia School Journal he is fur- nishing that which, in the writer's judgment, will eventuate in the most marked and lasting benefit to the teachers, and through them to the people of the State. He shows special aptitude and ability for this line of work.
A believer in the broadest possible scholarship for the literary man, he is not content with the Master's degree received from his Alma Mater in 1887, but is now pursuing an extended course for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. On January 19th of this year he was elected a Corresponding Member of the Vir- ginia Historical Society, at Richmond.
He has published a number of critical and historical articles and is very fond of work of that character.
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PROMINENT MEN OF
An untiring worker, Mr. Barbe has shown his wisdom in not producing many, but a few well-pruned and finished poems, that have appeared in the leading magazines; such are: "The Three Graves," "The Threshing Floor," "The Dance of the Roses," "The Heart of the Earth," etc. In 1887 Mr. Barbe was chosen Alumni Poet of his Alma Mater, and in autumn of the same year, poet of the West Virginia Editorial Association.
When in October, 1885, Morgantown celebrated its hundredth anniversary, his Centennial Ode, "The Song of a Century," was the feature of the occasion, and as recently published in a booklet, it has, with others of his poems, received many words of cordial praise from competent literary critics. His only venture in blank verse, and perhaps his best work, appeared in the Christmas (1888) number of The Criterion under the title, " The Lost Inheritance-The Cry of the Pessimist."
We can most fittingly close this sketch by giving a few crit- ical opinions of Mr. Barbe's poems :
Rose Hawthorne Lathrop says: "Such flashes of inspiration make the reader wish for another poem from the same writer."
Edmund Clarence Stedman, America's ablest critic, says : "It is not often that a far-away town is so fortunate as to have such a laureate for its centennial." .
Dr. Wm. H. Payne, Chancellor of the University of Nash- ville: "Happy is the university that has so gifted and so loyal a son."
Mrs. Danske Dandridge: "I was carried away by the beauty and fire of the Centennial Ode. I have always thought it almost impossible to write a good spontaneous poem for a set occasion like an anniversary or an address for any celebration, but this poem has convinced me that it can be done."
Dr. D. B. Purinton : "It (The Song of a Century) is a beau- tiful and highly poetic thing."
Of "The Threshing Floor," Hon. D. B. Lucas says: "It is musical, inspired, and, I need not add, true poetry."
Maurice Thompson says of his poems : "There is certainly in them the true poetic ring. I heartily like their freshness and promise."
Wm. Hamilton Hayne, Coates Kinney, Louise Imogen Guiney, Hon. Wm. L. Wilson, M. C., George W. Cable, Bishop Potter,
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WEST VIRGINIA.
Margaret Deland, Robert Burns Wilson, Grace King, Clifford Lanier, W. H. Venable and others are equally complimentary in their notices, and many appreciative reviews appear in the press from time to time.
FRANCIS HEERMANS.
RANCIS HEERMANS, the eldest son of John Heermans, was born in Luzerne county, Pennsylvania, March 24, 1836. In the spring of 1849, he with his father's family, removed to Preston county, Virginia. For two years thereafter, he was employed at farm labor. In October, 1851, he entered the ser- vice of Mr. James C. McGrew, as clerk in his store in King- wood; in 1854 he took charge of an extensive retail mercantile business at Fellowsville, which he purchased in 1859, and which
he conducted successfully until 1862. In May, 1863, he was elected Sheriff of Preston county, which office he faithfully filled for the full term of four years. He was elected a member of the West Virginia House of Delegates of 1867, and served on the Committee on Taxation and Finance; was re-elected for the session of 1868, during which term he was chairman of the Committee on Taxation and Finance. He was appointed a member of the revisory committee which prepared the Code of West Virginia during the recess from July 28th to November 10th, and reported the same to the adjourned session, which en- acted it substantially as received from the committee.
In 1869 Mr. Heerman's was appointed assistant cashier of the National Bank of Kingwood, but was soon promoted to the office of cashier, which position he still fills to the entire satis- faction of the directory and patrons of the bank. In politics he is an ardent Republican.
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PROMINENT MEN OF
A.LITTLE.
HON. FRANK HEERMANS.
745
WEST VIRGINIA.
THOMAS O'BRIEN.
IN American politics the wisest and best men are not always the most active, nor are they always found in public positions. On the contrary, it may be truthfully stated that the greatest general is not always in the army, nor the wisest statesmen in Congress or the Cabinet. In a republic it is too often the case that men are estimated by the public positions they hold, and those that do not aspire to official stations are regarded as of ordinary caliber and of restricted influence. This is a mistake. It may, however, generally be claimed that in our country, per- haps to a greater extent than in any other highly civilized gov- ernment, much of the very best material of citizenship runs to waste-many who ought to be at the front in the management of public affairs are in private life. They have no taste for modern American political associations, and therefore prefer to stand aloof. The country thereby loses their services-loses their influence in those places where they might otherwise be very useful. Of course their influence is by no means entirely lost, for men of strong personality, of wide mental grasp, of sterling integrity and broad culture cannot live in any country or community without benefitting it by their mere existence. The only remedy that can be offered for this deficiency in our system is to allow the Government to utilize, at its command, the services of its best and ablest citizens.
For a quarter of a century Col. Thomas O'Brien has been a conspicuous citizen of Wheeling. Not conspicuous in the sense of aspiring to and filling exalted official positions, but promi- nent as a man of strong parts, of massive common sense, of solid moral worth, and of powerful personal influence upon those that know him best, and have business dealings with him. But by no means have the people allowed him, at all times, to remain in retirement. He has often been called upon to fill important public trusts; and he has never failed to lay them down honorably. Such a citizen is always useful, always pop- ular, always influential.
Thomas O'Brien was born in county Cavan, Ireland, in 1830. He received a limited education in his native country, and em- barked for the New World in the spring of 1851. He came to Wheeling, Virginia, in the fall of that year, and was variously employed until 1853, when he began work at the Baltimore and
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PROMINENT MEN OF
Ohio Railroad depot. He was promoted, step by step, occupy- ing clerkships and other responsible positions at Wheeling, Ben- wood, and Parkersburg. At the latter place, in 1861, he en- listed in the army, and was made Second Lieutenant in the First regiment, under President Lincoln's call for troops to defend the Capital. When his three month's term of service expired, he returned to Wheeling and was employed as a clerk in the Postoffice until 1864, when he was discharged because he voted for General McClellan, the Democratic candidate for President. In the fall of that year he purchased the city circulation of the Wheeling Register, and at the same time established himself as a Real Estate Agent. Industry and attention to business brought to him prosperity. He was appointed Surveyor of the Port of Wheeling in 1865, and acceptably filled that responsible office until the close of President Johnson's administration. Governor Jacob, in 1871, appointed him as an Aid on his staff, with the rank of Colonel, which he held for the term of six years. In 1880 he was elected, as a Democrat, State Treasurer, and re- mained in that office the full term of four years; was a member of Wheeling Council in 1863 and '64, and in 1871 and '72; has been connected with the People's Bank for twenty years-the last five years as its President; is a Director in the Belmont Nail Company, the Natural Gas Company of West Virginia, and the Globe Building Association; is a Trustee and member of the Board of Directors of Mont de Chantal Female College, one of the leading Catholic educational institutions of the coun- try; also is a Director of the Wheeling Hospital and Orphan Asylum, and Vice President of Wheeling Chamber of Com- merce.
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