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Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by OH-FOOTSTEPS Mailing List January 17, 1999 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ OH-FOOTSTEPS-D Digest Volume 99 : Issue 22 Today's Topics: #1 BIO: BLACKFORD, 1928, Hancock/Hami [Maggie Stewart-Zimmerman <73777.25] #2 BIO: WHITE, 1928, Muskingum County [Maggie Stewart-Zimmerman <73777.25] #3 BIO: HEERMANS, 1928, Meigs County [Maggie Stewart-Zimmerman <73777.25] ------------------------------ X-Message: #1 Date: Sun, 17 Jan 1999 22:03:53 -0500 From: Maggie Stewart-Zimmerman Subject: BIO: BLACKFORD, 1928, Hancock/Hamilton C ------------------------------------------------------------------ FORWARDED MESSAGE - Orig: 16-Jan-99 22:27 Subject: Ohio connections ------------------------------------------------------------------ WEST VIRGINIA In History, Life, Literature and Industry The Lewis Publishing Company 1928 - Volume 5, page 6 George A. Blackford was reared and educated at Findlay, where he attended public schools and Findlay College, subsequently entering the University of Cincinnati, where he received the degree of Bachelor of Laws as a member of the graduating class of 1895. he commenced practice at Sandusky, Ohio, where he remained for twelve years, and at the end of that time, in 1907, changed his headquarters to Wheeling, where he has since practiced with much success, his offices being located in the Board of Trade Building. While Mr. Blackford is familiar with all branches of his profession, he has made a specialty of handling cases connected with the coal industry, and is the legal representative of numerous important coal companies. This is a specialized department of legal procedure, necessitating a comprehensive and accurate knowledge of multitudinous details. Mr. Blackford stands high in the esteem of his fellow practitioners, and is a valued member of the Ohio County Bar Association, the West Virginia Bar Association and the American Bar Association. He is a prominent Mason. A member of the Kiwanis Club of Wheeling, he was president of that body in 1923, and at this time is president of the Traffic Club of Wheeling, belongs also to the Fort Henry Club and Beta Theta Pi college fraternity. Politically he is a Republican and in religious faith, a Christian Scientist. On February 26, 1896, Mr. Blackford was united in marriage with Miss Elizabeth B. Brady, daughter of Benjamin F. and Catherine (McDonald) Brady, natives of Washington County, Pennsylvania. Mr. Brady, who was a merchant and banker of Martin's Ferry, Ohio, for about forty years, died in 1902, and Mrs. Brady now makes her home with Mr. and Mrs. Blackford, aged eighty-two years. The Bradys form one of the oldest families in the Ohio River Valley, having settled here at Wheeling as early as 1780. To Mr. and Mrs. Blackford there have been born two children: Catherine, the wife of Andrew James Gilleland, a sketch of whose career appears elsewhere in this work, and whose family settled here in 1780, and has two children, Brady Blackford, aged five years, and Andrew James, Jr., aged three years; and Margaret Ricketts, born in 1900, at Sandusky, Ohio, who married Andrew C.M. Hess, a manufacturer of Wheeling. The pleasant and hospitable Blackford home is situated on Dewey Terrace, Echo Point, Wheeling. WEST VIRGINIA In History, Life, Literature and Industry The Lewis Publishing Company 1928 - Volume 5 - page 8 Walter A. Gilman, chief clerk of the Pure Oil Company at Cabin Creek Junction, and a veteran of the World war, is one of the live young business men at Kanawha County, and one whose abilities have won him the standing in his company and community to which he is entitled. he was born at Long Branch, New Jersey, September 2, 1895, a son of Fred and Julia (Hoyt) Gilman. Fred Gilman was born, reared and educated at Cincinnati, Ohio and his educational training was carried through the high school. During all of his active life he was connected with the Pullman Car Company, and for a number of years held the position of superintendent. Now seventy-nine years old he is living in comfortable retirement at Chicago, Illinois. His wife was born and reared at Long Branch, New Jersey, and its public schools educated her. For a few years prior to her marriage she was a school teacher, and an excellent one, and she never lost her interest in educational matters, but was a vital force in the cultural life of any community in which she resided, as well as in the Methodist Episcopal Church, of which she long was a member. For many years she was an honored member of the Hartwell Woman's Club. Her death occurred March 4, 1923, and she is buried at Long Branch, New Jersey. Three children were born to the parents, of whom Walter A. was the youngest, the others being: Georgie, who married Frank Armstrong, of Chicago, general manager of the Pratt & Whitney Tool Company, and has one son, William; and Hoyt Gilman, who resides at Long Branch, and is with the Chrysler Sales Company. He married and has one son. The public schools of Cincinnati, Ohio, furnished Walter A. Gilman with his educational training, and he was graduated from high school in 1916. Like so many of the young men of the country, Mr. Gilman felt the urge of patriotism when his country entered the World war, and he enlisted in its army and was sent to Camp Sheridan, Alabama, where he was assigned to the One Hundred and Forty-seventh Infantry. he went with his unit overseas to France, and, after some intensive training, saw service in the Argonne-Meuse offensive and other sectors. While in France he attended the Officers' Training School and was commissioned a second lieutenant, assigned to the Fifth Division, and still later was attached to the headquarters of General Castner. Returned to the United States, he was honorably discharged at Camp Sherman, Ohio, August 11, 1919. On August 25 of the same year Mr. Gilman entered the employ of the Pure Oil Company at Cabin Creek as clerk in its warehouse and held that position until 1920, when he was promoted to the position of shipping clerk. In 1925 he was made chief clerk, and still is serving in that capacity. His promotions have come to him by reason of his faithful performance of duty, and his ability to handle whatever is given him to do. He belongs to the Knights of Pythias and the American legion. In political faith he is a Republican, but he has never sought office. Since his youth he has been an earnest member of the Methodist Episcopal Church South. On June 11, 1920, Mr. Gilman married at East Bank, West Virginia, Miss Alice Pryor, who was graduated from the high school of East Bank in 1917. She is a daughter of James and Mary Porter (Bricker) Pryor, of East Bank, where for many years he has been the leading undertaker, and a prominent citizen. The Pryor family is one of those that pioneered here in early days, and its members have always taken an active part in the development work of this region. Mrs. Gilman is a vital force in church and community work, and is a lady who has a host of friends both at Cabin Creek and in her old home. Mr. and Mrs. Gilman have on son, James Pryor Gilman. Mr. Gilman has great faith in the future of West Virginia, and is especially interested in that part of it that is now the scene of his endeavors. he believes that the state is entering an era of great prosperity, and that the development of its natural resources has barely commenced. ------------------------------ X-Message: #2 Date: Sun, 17 Jan 1999 22:04:40 -0500 From: Maggie Stewart-Zimmerman Subject: BIO: WHITE, 1928, Muskingum County ------------------------------------------------------------------ FORWARDED MESSAGE - Orig: 17-Jan-99 17:40 Subject: Ohio connections ------------------------------------------------------------------ WEST VIRGINIA In History, Life, Literature and Industry The Lewis Publishing Company 1928 - Volume 5, page 62-63 REV. ETHAN E. WHITE is a Baptist minister whose work has made him very favorably known in the West Virginia Convention, and he is the present pastor of the Mount Hope Baptist Temple. Rev. Mr. White is a singularly gifted minister, earnest, forceful, and has had unusual success in building up churches. The church at Mount Hope of which he is pastor was organized at Macdonald in 1897 with eighteen charter members, and after about three years the church was moved to Mount Hope. Rev. Ethan E. White was born near Zanesville, Ohio, August 21, 1875, and is of Scotch-Irish ancestry. The Whites moved from Washington County, Pennsylvania, to Southern Ohio, and were pioneers of Zanesville. Lanson White was born and reared near Zanesville, became a farmer and died at the early age of twenty-four, in 1877, being buried in the family cemetery near Zanesville. Lanson White's mother was a granddaughter of Robert McIntyre, one of the first settlers in the Wellsburg community in the Northern Panhandle of what is now West Virginia. Mary A. Frazier, mother of Rev. Mr. White, was born and reared in Muskingum County, Ohio, attended school there, and has always been active in church work. She is now seventy-four and lives at Shelby, Ohio. Rev. Ethan E. White attended public schools in Ohio, continued his education in Ohio Northern University and later in the Moody Bible Institute of Chicago. On January 2, 1902, he was ordained a Baptist minister, and for a time had charge of several small churches in Southeastern Ohio. For four years he was a field worker for the Ohio Baptist Convention, following which he was pastor of a church at Bethesda, Ohio, until 1909. His first work in West Virginia was at Sistersville, where for three years he was pastor of the First Baptist Church, and a new church was built during his pastorate. After that he was pastor of the Lorain Street Church in Ironton, Ohio and religious and social work director of the Railroad Y. M. C. A. at Russell, Kentucky. In 1914 he located at Weston, West Virginia, and during his pastorate of three and a half years built a new church. In 1917 he occupied the pulpit of the Central Baptist Church of Columbus, Ohio, serving two years. Rev. Mr. White in 1919 was c alled to Chicago as executive secretary of the Moody Bible Institute Alumni Association. From 1921 to 1923 he was pastor of the Dudley Avenue Baptist Church at Parkersburg, West Virginia, and from 1923 to 1925 pastor of the First Baptist Church at Spencer. During each of the pastorates the church edifice was remodeled. He then returned to Parkersburg and was engaged in evangelistic and Bible teaching work until 1926. Rev. Mr. White accepted the call to the pastorate of the Baptist Church at Mount Hope in July, 1926. His successful experience as a builder has been of great advantage to the Mount Hope congregation. In September, 1923, a drive for funds for building a new church was started and about $60,000 was subscribed. However, as a result of the dullness in the coal industry it was decided not to call upon the full amount from the subscribers, and the building program was deferred until a more favorable situation. Since Mr. White became pastor the building work has been carried out and on July 1, 1927, the beautiful Mount Hope Baptist Temple was completed at a cost of about $75,000. It is one of the most attractive church edifices in this part of the state. Rev. Mr. White at one time was a member of the State Board of the West Virginia Baptist Convention. He is member of Macdonald Lodge No. 103, A.F. and A. M., the Mount Hope Business Men's Club, and belonged to the rotary Club while living at Spencer. He is a Republican. He married in Muskingum County, Ohio, October 21, 1896, Miss Dolly D. Dickson, who was reared and educated in Muskingum County, daughter of William E. and Eliza (Revenaugh) Dickson, substantial farming people of that section. Rev. Mr. and Mrs. White have three children. The daughter Mary Mildred, who completed her high school education at Weston, is the wife of J. French Williams, a salesman for the George I. Harmell Company of Charleston, West Virginia, and they have three children, named James Frederick, Theodore White and Joseph Edward. Grace Dickson White, the second child, graduated from the North High School at Columbus, Ohio, took the Bible music course in the Moody Bible Institute of Chicago, and is now a student in Eastern University at Philadelphia. The son, William Walden White, graduated from the Mount Hope High School in 1927 and is a member of the class of 1931 in Broaddus College at Philippi, West Virginia. ------------------------------ X-Message: #3 Date: Sun, 17 Jan 1999 22:04:46 -0500 From: Maggie Stewart-Zimmerman Subject: BIO: HEERMANS, 1928, Meigs County ------------------------------------------------------------------ FORWARDED MESSAGE - Orig: 17-Jan-99 19:20 Subject: Ohio connections ------------------------------------------------------------------ WEST VIRGINIA In History, Life, Literature and Industry The Lewis Publishing Company 1928 - Volume 5, page 83-84 w/photo CHARLES R. HEERMANS began his career as a mechanical engineer, and for a number of years has held important responsibilities in shops and industries in West Virginia, being now shop superintendent of the new River company at Macdonald, Fayette County. Mr. Heermans was born in Meigs County, Ohio, December 31, 1878, son of Edgar and Sarah (Reeder) Heermans. The Heermans family is an old and prominent one of Pennsylvania, and from that state moved into many other localities. Edgar Heermans was born and reared at Scranton, attended public schools there, and spent many years of his life as an educator, teaching for several years in Meigs County, Ohio, then at Elizabeth, West Virginia, and about 1900 moved to Parkersburg and was bookkeeper for the Miller Lumber company of that city until he retired. He died in September, 1926, at the advanced age of niney-one, and is buried in the Mount Olivet Cemetery at Parkersburg. His widow, who survives him and lives at Parkersburg at the age of seventy-nine, is an active member of the Episcopal Church. She was born and reared at Lubeck, West Virginia. They had five children: Elizabeth, wife of John Curtis, of White Plains, New York; James S., who died at the age of thrity-three; Emmett R., who died in December, 1927, when fifty-two years of age; Charles R.; and William H., of Parkersburg. Charles R. Heermans attended public school at Elizabeth in Wirt County, West Virginia, and spent two years in West Virginia University. After his university career he went to New York and for five years was with the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company, rising to the position of gang boss in the shops. In 1905 he returned to West Virginia, for about four years was foreman in the shops of the Charleston Electric Supply Company and held a similar position with the Virginia Electric Company. He has been with the New River Company since 1911, at first as shop foreman at Carlisle, and in 1921 was transferred to the Macdonald main shops as superintendent. The New River Company shop organization in equipment and personnel is probably not surpassed by that of any other coal mining corporation in the State of West Virginia. Mr. Heermans has always been a popular executive, one who thoroughly knows his business on the mechanical side, and has taken an active and public spirited interest in his community. He is York Rite Mason, member of Beni Kedem Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Charleston, also belongs to the Knights of Pythias, is a Democrat, and both he and his wife are active members of the Presbyterian Church. He married at Charleston, July 17, 1905, Miss Lillian Stover, who was educated in public schools at the capital. She is a member of the Eastern Star and White Shrine of Jerusalem. Her parents were John and Fanny (Perry) Stover, of Charleston. Her father was a tinner by trade and for many years was in the tin shop business at Charleston, where he died in 1924 and is buried in Spring Hill Cemetery. Her mother still lives at Charleston. Mr. and Mrs. Heermans have two children. The daughter, Elizabeth Frances, born August 12, 1907, graduated from the Mount Hope High School in 1927 and now teaches in a public school in Fayette County. The son, Charles R., Jr., born April 16, 1914, is a student in the Mount Hope High School. WEST VIRGINIA In History, Life, Literature and Industry The Lewis Publishing Company 1928 - Volume 5, page 95-96 (2 photos) C. E. CLAPPER is auditor of the New River Company, with home and headquarters at Macdonald. He has had a wide and extensive experience in mining and transportation organizations and has been with the New River company since 1920. Mr. Clapper was born in Muskingum County, Ohio, November 16, 1884. he was educated in public schools, graduated with honors in 1906 form a business college at Zanesville and the routine work that has afforded him opportunities for important service in the commercial world has done as accountant and stenographer. He was bookkeeper for the Wills Creek Coal Company at Cambridge, Ohio, for a short time, then became stenographer in the stores department of the Baltimore and Ohio Railway, spending two years at Benwood, West Virginia, and Holloway, Ohio, and in October, 1908, located near Charleston, West Virginia, and in November, 1908, became mine office clerk of the New River Collieries Company at Prince, then being transferred from Prince to the main office at Sun, where he began as stenographer and eventually was promoted to chief clerk, the highest office in the field offices of that company. Mr. Clapper on January 1, 1920, came with the New River Company as bookkeeper in the accounting department. Three years later he was made chief accountant, and served in that position until October 4, 1927, when he was elected auditor of the company. Mr. Clapper, whose home is at Mount Hope, married, June 25, 1913, Miss Clara E. Gregg, of Cumberland, Ohio. They have one son, Robert, born September 11, 1914. -------------------------------- End of OH-FOOTSTEPS-D Digest V99 Issue #22 ******************************************