PULASKI CO, AR - HARRY HAGER ROOME - Bio Source: The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 136 Submitted by: Valerie Crook [vfcrook@trellis.net] ====================================================================== USGENWEB NOTICE: In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the Internet, data may be freely used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material. These electronic pages cannot be reproduced in any format for profit or other presentation. ====================================================================== HARRY HAGER ROOME is proprietor of a large commer- cial establishment at Pine Grove, and for years has also been active in the oil and gas fields of West Virginia, chiefly as a drilling contractor, though he also owns some valuable production. Mr. Roome was born at Little Rock, Arkansas, April 16, 1884, but represents an old West Virginia family. His grandfather, John Roome, was a pioneer farmer of Tyler County, where he died in 1860. He married Miss McCan- less, who died in Tyler County in 1859. Their son, John W. Roome, was born in Tyler County, February 14, 1858, and as a young man followed farming in that county. For ten years he was foreman of metal yards for the Wheeling Steel Works, and in 1895 removed to Sisters- ville, during the oil boom, and for a quarter of a century has been active in the drilling of oil and gas wells. He spent four years in the Sistersville field, four years in the Piney Fork field of Wetzel County, two years at Pine Grove, and since then his work and experience have been in the Oklahoma and Texas fields and he now lives at Broken Ridge, Texas. He is a democrat, a member of the Methodist Church and the Knights of Pythias. John W. Roome married Esther Sines, who was born in Tyler County in 1861. They have three children: Nell, of Tulsa, Okla- homa, widow of H. C. Witherup, who was an oil field con- tractor; Harry H.; and John W., Jr., an oil well driller at Tulsa. Harry Hager Roome attended public school at Benwood in Marshall County until he was twelve, and after that his education was completed with six winter terms in Tyler County. In the meantime, at the age of sixteen, he went to work in the oil field at Piney Fork as an employe of the Hope Natural Gas Company. While with this com- pany he dressed tools, also drilled wells, and in 1903 he moved to Pine Grove. He still owns and operates two strings of drilling tools, representing an investment of $15,000, and has been a contractor in the drilling of oil and gas wells over a large scope of territory in West Vir- ginia. On March 9, 1917, Mr. Roome established a general store at Pine Grove, and has since developed a large es- tablishment, representing a heavy capital investment and with a complete stock of goods. He owns his store build- ing on Main Street and also a stone business block which is the main business structure in the town. This is used for his wholesale feed and grain department. He also has three valuable lots in the Newman addition adjoining the high school, and in 1921 he erected three dwellings in the Alley addition of Pine Grove. He also has oil produc- tion in the Green district of Wetzel County and is a di- rector of the Bank of Pine Grove. Mr. Roome is a democrat, a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and in fraternal affairs is affiliated with Wetzel Lodge No. 39, A. F. and A. M., at New Martins- ville; West Virginia Consistory No. 1 of the Scottish Rite, at Wheeling; Osiris Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Wheel- ing; and is a past vice chancellor commander of Sylvan Lodge No. 130, Knights of Pythias, at Pine Grove. On April 26, 1907, at New Martinsville, he married Miss Mena Balwanz, daughter of Fred and Ollie (Martin) Bal- wanz, residents of Chillicothe, Ohio, where her father is a farmer. Mr. and Mrs. Roome have two children: Harry Hager, Jr., born May 20, 1915; and Marylann, born in 1918. ======================================================================