Barbour County, West Virginia Biography of William Jackson COONTZ This biography was submitted by Valerie Crook, E-mail address: The submitter does not have a connection to the subject of this sketch. This file may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit organizations for their private use. All other rights reserved. Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other means requires the written approval of the file's author. This file is part of the WVGenWeb Archives. If you arrived here inside a frame or from a link from somewhere else, our front door is at http://www.usgwarchives.net/wv/wvfiles.htm The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 331 WILLIAM JACKSON COONTZ has found satisfaction for ambitions to be both useful and successful in the trade and business of carpenter and builder, an occupation in which his father also excelled. Mr. Coontz is one of the honored residents of Belington, and has done some of the most distinctive work in his line in that section of Barbour County. He represents an old family of West Virginia, his great- grandfather having been the pioneer of the name in the western region of old Virginia. His father is the ven- erable Samuel Morgan Dallas Coontz, who was born in Barbour County, and as a youth had only the advantages of the subscription schools. His inclination for study enabled him to realize a great deal of value out of that limited education. He sympathized with the South in its contest for independence, but did not serve in the Confederate army, although he was in Virginia during the war. After the war he took up the work of his life, that of carpenter and millwright, and some of the mills he built still stand, including the Johnny Booth Mill on the head waters of Mill Run, several mills on the waters of Laurel and Sugar Creek and the mill at Nestor- ville on Teter Creek. He did his work chiefly in Taylor, Barbour and Randolph counties, and continued his labors with his favorite tools until recent years. Now, at the age of seventy-eight, he is living in comfortable retire- ment at Belington. He is a democrat, but never took a serious interest in politics beyond voting for good men for office. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. He is one of the occasional self made men who can express themselves in public, and he has proved an entertaining and instructive talker before an audience as well as in general conversation. Samuel M. D. Coontz married Isabel F. Poe, who was born in Taylor County, December 14, 1851, daughter of William D. and Mary (Davis) Poe. Her father was born, reared and spent his life in Taylor County, dying at his farm home on a hill overlooking Grafton. His father was Jonathan Bore Poe of German ancestry and also a West Virginia farmer. Samuel Coontz and wife had five chil- dren: Zura May, who died in Barbour County, wife of Frank Moore; Amanda, who lives in Belington, wife of Riley Moore; William J.; A. Thayer, of Akron, Ohio; and Grover C., of Belington. William Jackson Coontz was born on a hill overlooking the City of Grafton, August 24, 1877, but a short time after his birth his parents moved to Barbonr County, and he grew up near Belington. He attended the free schools there, and as a youth learned his trade from his father, beginning at the age of fourteen and working as apprentice and journeyman under his father until he was twenty-two. At that time he yielded to an ambi- tion to see something of his own country, and he went to the Pacific Coast, going out by the Southwestern route, and spent three years in San Francisco in the employ of the United Railroads, a street ear corporation. While in San Francisco he learned the sensation of being in an earthquake, and one year in the month of February there were twenty-eight shocks, as many as four occurring in one day. When he left California, he returned by way of the Northwestern States, and soon after reaching home he married and built a residence near Belington and re- sumed work at his trade. Mr. Coontz has contributed much to the development and growth of Belington, and also the surrounding country. He has constructed some of the tipples at the coal mines in this vicinity. Among conspicuous examples of his work as a building contractor are the residences of John W. Coontz. William Hill and Charley Kittle, the Lambert Chappel Church and the Shoekey and Laurel Hill school houses. Mr. Coontz is also a painting contractor and has lent beauty to the town through this art as well as through his organization of carpentering. He was also the fore- man in laying the base course over part of the Morgan- town and Fairmont road improvement and the Fairmont- Beverly Pike. In March, 1922. Mr. Coontz was elected a member of the Belington Council, as representative of the First Ward. He is a democrat, casting his first presiden- tial vote for Judge Parker. Mr. Coontz and family are members of the Methodist Church. South, and he is a member of both branches of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Rebekahs. In Barbour County, September 30, 1905, he married Miss Nettie J. Sturm. daughter of Henry J. and Frances (Pol- ing) Sturm. Her mother was a daughter of Abraham Poling, a Confederate soldier and member of one of the real pioneer families in this section of West Virginia. Mrs. Coontz, who was born June 6, 1885, third in a fam- ily of twelve children, acquired a liberal education in the public schools. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Coontz are: Clark R., Maxine, Josephine and Arline.